Homeland Security Lists 21 States Targeted by Russian Hackers
Wisconsin, Ohio and California Among Them
The Department of Homeland Security has notified 21 states that they were among those targeted by state-sponsored hackers from Russia during the 2016 presidential elections. The disclosure was not made public, although 13 states revealed that they were on the list.
Local election officials in Wisconsin, Ohio and California were among those who received the official information from Homeland Security, as the state election offices in these states confirmed to the Associated Press.
Some key states in the 2016 elections, aside from Wisconsin and Ohio, confirmed the information as well. Florida, Pennsylvania, and Virginia also confirmed that they were also targeted. Arizona and Illinois confirmed their status as targets as early as last year, according to Reuters.
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Other states confirming include Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Washington. The list comes up to 21 states in total that were targeted by Russian hackers looking to skew the elections in favor of Donald Trump.
There is no strong proof that votes have been tampered with in any way, however. Judd Choate, president of the U.S. National Association of State Election Directors, says as much. "There remains no evidence that the Russians altered one vote or changed one registration," Choate stated.
This still counts as progress for the ongoing investigation into the 2016 elections, as this is the first time that the federal government has officially notified states of the possible Russian-backed meddling, as The Verge notes.
To take this long to share this information, however, is something that some states were not willing to let pass. Alex Padilla, State Secretary of California, hit Homeland Security over the delay.
"It is completely unacceptable that it has taken DHS over a year to inform our office of Russian scanning of our systems, despite our repeated requests for information," Padilla said, adding how this "practice of withholding critical information from elections officials is a detriment to the security of our elections and our democracy."
