Representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman Friday that Russian hackers attempted to access the state’s election systems before the 2016 general election but failed.
Wyman said the information confirmed what her office had previously shared with federal officials last year.
“As we’ve stated before, we continue to work cooperatively with DHS — including during the election last year. The security protocols we already have in place made us aware of these attempted intrusions by Russian IP addresses throughout the course of the 2016 election,” according to the Washington Secretary of State’s office. “There was no successful intrusion and we immediately alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the activities.”
More information about the state’s election system security measures can be found atsos.wa.gov/elections/System-Security.aspx.
“Today’s calls from DHS to all 50 states and six U.S. territories confirm what we already knew … that despite the ongoing attempts to compromise American election systems, my office is doing everything we can, utilizing the latest software, best practices and security measures, to keep Washington’s elections safe, reliable and accessible to our citizens,” according to the office.
