Florida's online elections databases and voting systems remained secure in 2016, a spokesperson for Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said Tuesday, despite what appears to be confirmation that a phishing email was sent to state elections offices and news reports indicate that federal officials believe the Russians were behind it.
According to a statement released Tuesday afternoon, officials said the Maricopa County Recorder's Office has an in-house IT department that builds its own voter registration software and electronic pollbook check-in system, and the Elections Department has no tabulation software that is connected to the internet.
Elections Supervisor Lisa Lewis on Wednesday provided The News-Journal with a copy of a November 1 email from VR Systems, a Tallahassee contractor that provides software to customers in eight states, warning customers not to open a "suspicious email" circulating using the red and blue VR logo, but sent from an account that was not connected to the company. Sanders said two state agencies offered to assist with any future services should any gaps be found in the county's security systems, which she said was reassuring.
Florida has "multiple safeguards", and all voting is done on paper ballots so when questions arise, canvassers can always refer to the original record, with one exception: some voters with disabilities are permitted to vote on accessible equipment, she said.
In the days leading up to the 2016 election, several Florida elections offices received phishing emails that were part of a Russian cyberattack, according to a report by the National Security Agency.
The report says Russian military intelligence attacked a USA voting software company and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials at the end of October or beginning of November.
"I just thought it was some scam", Lewis said Tuesday.
The NSA document states that at least one of these attempts was successful and that the operatives created an email address posing as a VR Systems employee.
And late Tuesday, Wayne County Clerk Debra Berry said she received confirmation from VR Systems that no IN counties were impacted, adding the primary focus was customers IN Florida.
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"If your goal is to disrupt an election, you don´t need to pick the victor or actually tamper with tally result", said Matt Blaze, a University of Pennsylvania computer science professor who has written on the security of voting machines.
It's important to note, elections official said, the state of IN does not contract with VR Systems.
Russian military attempts to hack last year's presidential election were aimed at a Tallahassee-based company.
Emails laced with malware were sent to 122 local officials controlling voter registration systems. Elections are run by counties in the United States.
While stating he did not want to disclose too much information for security reasons, Storm stated that county has an email filtering system in place that he said would have been able to pick up the fake VR Systems emails.
By now I'm sure you've read the numerous reports of the recently leaked NSA report on Russian Hacking and hopefully you have taken the time to read the statement released by VR Systems.
The the complaint says victor mailed the intelligence reporting to an online news outlet a few days later.
"The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into USA voting systems than was previously understood", according to The Intercept, the news outlet that published the story.
The criminal complaint alleges that victor, who had worked as a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation since February, printed out and took classified intelligence reporting from an intelligence community agency.
