Tag: hacking

The chief operating officer of a Florida-based elections-software company says its computer systems were never hacked despite phishing attempts. VR Systems COO Ben Martin told Florida election supervisors during a presentation Monday that his company's systems were never compromised.

Security experts have long contended that the highly decentralized, often ramshackle U.S. election system is its own best defense against trickery or sabotage . New evidence from a leaked intelligence document suggests that foreign adversaries are exploring ways to attack it anyway. The document, purportedly produced by the U.S. National Security Agency, outlines alleged attempts by Russian military intelligence to hack into state and local election systems — the latest evidence of a broad and sophisticated foreign attack on the integrity of U.S. elections. It does not indicate whether actual vote-tampering occurred.

Russian hackers attacked at least one U.S. voting software supplier days before last year’s presidential election, according to a government intelligence report leaked Monday that suggests election-related hacking penetrated further into U.S. voting systems than previously known. A Kremlin spokesman denied the report.

President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that some “patriotic” individuals may have engaged in hacking but insisted Russia as a country has never done it, and he pledged Thursday to wait out U.S. political battles to forge constructive ties with President Donald Trump. The Russian leader lamented what he described as “Russo-phobic hysteria” in the U.S. that makes it “somewhat inconvenient to work with one another or even to talk,” adding that “someday this will have to stop.”