Georgia accuses U.S. of trying to hack into election systems

WASHINGTON — The state of Georgia on Thursday accused the U.S. Homeland Security Department of apparently trying to hack its election systems

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Georgia Secretary of State Brian P. Kemp said a computer traced back to the federal agency in Washington tried unsuccessfully to penetrate the state office’s firewall one week after the presidential election. The letter speculated that what it described as “a large unblocked scan event” might have been a security test.

It sought details, including whether the agency did in fact conduct the scan, who authorized it and whether other states might have been similarly probed. Kemp cited the federal law against knowingly accessing a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access, which is a felony.

“At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network,” Kemp wrote. “Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network.”

Kemp said this was “especially odd and concerning” given that he is a member of the U.S. Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group run by the federal agency.

Homeland Security spokesman Scott McConnell said the department got Kemp’s letter and is “looking into the matter.”

“DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly,” McConnell said.

Forty-eight states accepted offers by the Homeland Security Department to scan their networks ahead of the presidential elections. The scans looked for vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit. The U.S. also described how states could patch their networks to make it more difficult to penetrate them.

Georgia was one of the two states that did not accept the department’s offer. It said it had contracted with an outside agency and already imple- mented protective measures.

“They offered to provide these services, we declined it and then we determine they attempted to hack our system,” said David Dove, chief of staff and legal counsel for Kemp’s office.