The Department of Homeland Security notified Wisconsin officials Friday that Russian operatives made an unsuccessful attempt to hack into the state's voter rolls last year. USA Today writes:
Russians attempted to hack elections systems in Wisconsin and 20 other states in the run-up to last year's presidential election, Wisconsin officials said Friday. [...]
Wisconsin's voter registration system was targeted, as were election systems in other states that have a presence on the internet, Haas said. Haas said he did not know which states other than Wisconsin were part of the attempt by what Homeland Security officials told him were “Russian government cyber actors." [...]
State officials are seeking more information about the incident and why they were not notified sooner, Haas said.
“This scanning had no impact on Wisconsin’s systems or the election,” [Elections Commission Director Michael] Haas said in a statement. “Internet security provided by the state successfully protected our systems. Homeland Security specifically confirmed there was no breach or compromise of our data.”
What a great roll out of this crucial election information from DHS—late on a Friday afternoon, no press conference, state officials still in the dark about the extent of the attempt and who else was targeted.
Really inspires confidence, doesn't it?
Also, GOP Gov. Scott Walker just cut six jobs from the State Election Commission. Lawmakers wanted to keep 21 of the 22 positions. Walker thought better of that and trimmed it back to 16. Just in time.
UPDATE: Ok, adding the AP lede here saying that “in most cases” state systems weren’t breached.
The federal government is telling election officials in 21 states that hackers targeted their systems last year, although in most cases the systems were not breached.
States that told The Associated Press they had been targeted include Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. In most cases, they had not known until notified Friday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Is this a joke? DHS drops this on a frickin’ Friday and tells the AP that everything was mostly A-okay?!