Security News > 2020 > February > Ransomware Hit a Florida Voting System in 2016

Election officials in Palm Beach County, Florida, revealed this week that its voter registration system was hit by ransomware in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election, according to the The Palm Beach Post.

On Wednesday, Wendy Sartory Link, the recently appointed election supervisor of Palm Beach county, acknowledged that the government voting system sustained a previously undisclosed ransomware attack in mid-September 2016, according to the news report.

The issue of election security in Florida came to the forefront in April 2019, when the report produced by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election, found that "At least one" county in the state had been breached.

Following the Mueller report, in May 2019, the FBI briefed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis about two counties in the state that were hacked in the run-up to the 2016 election, according to CNN. But DeSantis did not reveal the names of the counties.

The revelation in Florida comes as efforts to strengthen election security ahead of the 2020 presidential elections continue.

News URL

https://www.inforisktoday.com/ransomware-hit-florida-voting-system-in-2016-a-13721