DHS official: Half of U.S. states have sought help to thwart election hackers

Hacking threats have prompted 25 states so far to seek out the Obama administration’s help in assessing vulnerabilities and fending off attacks to their voting systems headed into Election Day, a Department of Homeland Security official told POLITICO on Wednesday.

DHS won’t name the specific states that have reached out for federal aid — that’s up to each individual state to confirm, the agency said. But DHS has been providing a running total on the overall number of states. Last Friday, a department official said that 21 states had expressed an interest in its vulnerability scanning services.

“We hope to see more,” DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement on Saturday.

Concerns about a cyberattack on the nation’s election system have grown in recent months, following a series of suspected Russian hacks targeting Democratic political offices, the Hillary Clinton campaign and state election networks. GOP nominee Donald Trump has also prompted concerns about the integrity of the election by repeatedly stating the outcome will be “rigged” and by calling for his supporters to volunteer in “certain areas” as poll watchers.

politico

I think there is plenty of reasons to be concerned. Congress is concerned and now the Department of Homeland Security is getting involved at the request of 25 states. What say you ATS, will Russia, or any other hacker group try to rig our elections? Seems like the hackers have been favoring Trump so far in this election season, the Right just know Hillary will be brought down by hackers. Will hackers release Trump tax returns or will they just hack the voter machines??

The cry for "help" could just be a red herring to get the federal government involved in a cover-up.

a reply to: xuenchen

Haven't we seen enough hacker activity for there to be a genuine concern?

Oh damm they are asking the Obama administration for help so the election is not rigged?

Yeah that will work out for Trump.

Considering the administration is doing everything in its power (huge propaganda campaign, massive coverups, immunity deals to silence people with information, etc) to make sure a certain corrupt person wins the election, I'd be concerned about getting them involved in making sure voting machines are "secure"

I worry that Trump connections to Russia is a clear threat to our election.

a reply to: WilburnRoach

Donuts to dollars the ones asking for DHS to help them secure their systems are blue states.

Red states?...Eff it, if the Russians help Trump win, hooray!! "Putin is a great leader" after all! Trump supporters would elect Putin in a heartbeat.

originally posted by: Indigo5
a reply to: WilburnRoach

Donuts to dollars the ones asking for DHS to help them secure their systems are blue states.

Red states?...Eff it, if the Russians help Trump win, hooray!! "Putin is a great leader" after all! Trump supporters would elect Putin in a heartbeat.

To be fair 25 states have asked for help but there not releasing what states!

SO, let me get this right, the guys limiting encryption and causing the vulnerabilities are going to sweep in and protect us from them?

Sounds legit. LMFAO

OR....This is a cover for Hillary losing. She can say the system was hacked and corrupted to benefit Trump.
And you know as well as I do the Democrats would/will try it too. If Trump wins, expect cries of a rigged vote.
Of course, never mind they were caught red handed cheating to get Hillary in and their emails show just how far they'll go to win, it's the other side who needs watching.

The electronic voting machines in this state are not connected to the internet, nor do they have wifi capability. The errant programming comes straight from the manufacturer in so called "updates". In our state the programming has to be done by the manufacturer of the voting machines. The only hack would be to the Keys which are large memory modules that plug into each individual machine and they come from the manufacturer. I don't believe there is any way currently in our state to verify what is on the keys. There in lies the problem, and errors have been found before.

The cry for "help" could just be a red herring to get the federal government involved in a cover-up.

Considering the administration is doing everything in its power (huge propaganda campaign, massive coverups, immunity deals to silence people with information, etc) to make sure a certain corrupt person wins the election, I'd be concerned about getting them involved in making sure voting machines are "secure"

Donuts to dollars the ones asking for DHS to help them secure their systems are blue states.

I agree with all of these.

I will add that at this point, regardless of who wins, we should expect there to be claims of the election being rigged. That's obvious.

What about the built in software that allows for a vote to carry a decimalized value other than "1?"

Maybe these states are worried that the tabulation tables will be published showing Hillary's 200k votes are really only 2000?



I would be willing to wager that it's none of these states:

Nineteen states protect voters by prohibiting electronic return of marked ballots over the Internet and instead require the voter’s original paper ballot to be returned: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. These states were ranked “excellent.”

coutingvotes.org

a reply to: WilburnRoach

Washington (CNN)More states and local election boards have asked the Department of Homeland Security to help with cybersecurity, the department announced Monday night.

The total, which has been steadily rising in recent weeks, has reached 33 state and 11 county or local election agencies, DHS said.

More than two dozen states were known to have requested help before the updated tally.

DHS has been urging states to take advantage of its resources, which include scanning systems for vulnerabilities and recommendations for improving cybersecurity on election and voter registration systems.

cnn

The total number of states requesting help against cybersecurity threats against our upcoming elections has grown to 33 states. For those claiming it was only Democrat states asking for help, it appears that isn't the case.

I feel Russia is already at war with the USA and has been actively cyber attacking us for some time.

a reply to: WilburnRoach

Here is Rep. Adam Schiff: Donald Trump 'Flat Wrong' About Russia Hacks!

Sounds like Another Deflection because another bomb was dropped today. Because in this election leaked tapes are now fair game.
On hidden Camera NYC democratic Election Commissioner Alan Schulkin discusses about all kinds of ID/election fraud that go on.

While discussing the potential for fraud, Schulkin volunteered that in some parts of the city, “they bus people around to vote . . . They put them in a bus and go poll site to poll site.” Asked which neighborhoods, Schulkin said, “I don’t want to say.” When the undercover mentions black and Hispanic neighborhoods, Schulkin responded, “Yeah . . . and Chinese, too.”

Translation: half of US states have asked for the secret police to rig the election machines to produce a certain vote count regardless of input by the voters.