State Elections Systems Hacked, Officials Still Don’t Know How

What’s the story?

Remember those reports that upwards of 39 state election systems were hacked prior to the 2016 presidential election? Well, states would really like to know if they’re on that list so they can start properly preparing for the 2018 mid-term elections, but according to Reuters, DHS won’t tell them.

Why does it matter?

At a recent four day conference of the National Association of State Election Directors, president Judd Choate told Reuters that the information of which states were affected probably won’t ever be made public because state officials don’t even know yet:

"You’re absolutely never going to learn it, because we don’t even know it."

Two states — Arizona and Illinois, have confirmed that they were hacked, but at 10 months out from the election no other states have been informed as far as Choate knows.

DHS confirmed with Reuters that they had been in communication with the companies that provide election systems. The department’s concerns are twofold — protecting proprietary information and sharing classified information:

"[DHS is working] to determine how best to share this information while protecting the integrity of investigations and the confidentiality of system owners."

According to Reuters, "Information about cyber attacks is typically guarded by a high classification because it may involve nation-state involvement or contain sensitive sources and methods."

Following the election, the federal government declared state election systems "critical infrastructure," which gives DHS more latitude to help states address cyber concerns. But for the time being, election systems will remain in the hands of the states, who have varying degrees of capacity and resources to deal with cyber threats. Without information and enough time to formulate systems and plans, America’s state-run election infrastructure may be caught flat-footed again.

What do you think?

Should states be informed as soon as possible if they are on the list of states that were hacked? Should the public be informed what states were hacked as well? Should Congress require DHS to inform states both if they were hacked and what measures to take to prevent further cyber intrusions before the end of the year, so states have as much time as possible to prepare before 2018 mid-terms? How are states supposed to oversee election security if they can’t know all the details of what happened when their systems were hacked?

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— Asha Sanaker

(Photo Credit: Wikimedia / Creative Commons)

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• Russians targeted 21 election systems, U.S. official says — Reuters