A working group for the protection of elections met for the first time at the Ministry of the Interior
The law gives the Ministry of the Interior responsibility for the coordination and orderly conduct of free and fair elections.
Attempts to influence elections and concerns about the risks of their being influenced are reported by a number of intelligence services of partner countries, and can be found in open sources. Although the Ministry of the Interior does not currently have specific information about a threat to the orderly conduct of elections, the risk requires consideration under the present circumstances and in light of the forthcoming elections in the Czech Republic. For this reason, the CTHH, after consulting with intelligence services, established a working group for the purpose of examining all potential scenarios of attack on democratic elections, identifying potential vulnerabilities of the electoral system, and verifying the existence and efficiency of practical and legal countermeasures. The working group builds on experience from abroad, but also on the ministry‘s own knowledge of the preparation and conduct of elections.
Areas of possible attacks include cyberattacks, attacks on individual phases of the election preparation process, incidents during electoral conventions, voting abroad, the question of communication and coordination inside the state administration in case of a combination of attacks, and many others.
The group’s activities are classified. The group will not provide information on its activities to the public.