Security News > 2020 > January > FBI Plans to Notify States About Local Election Breaches
The FBI, in a change of policy, is committing to inform state officials if local election systems have been breached, federal officials said Thursday.
Now the FBI will notify both counties victimized by breaches as well as the state's chief election official - in most cases, the secretary of state.
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla told The Associated Press that state election officials play an important role in supporting local election officials.
FBI officials say they will continue to protect the privacy of individual hacking victims, including governmental offices or local elections systems, by not sharing their identities with the public.
"Our citizens will then be in a position to check their voter registration data to confirm it wasn't tampered with and to hold accountable state and local officials who fail to protect election infrastructure," Murphy said in a statement.