“Regardless of whether or not it was committed with malicious intent, any attempt to penetrate secure systems is cause for grave concern,” he said. “I’m pleased to hear that the inspector general has opened an independent investigation into Secretary Kemp’s allegations, and I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress and the new administration to ensure that our cyber infrastructure is fortified.”

Homeland Security officials have claimed a federal contractor based in Georgia used an agency computer to perform routine background checks of job applicants and that there was no malicious intent in the checks.

Kemp has been at odds with Homeland Security over other issues, including former agency head Jeh Johnson's decision earlier this month to designate U.S. election systems as critical infrastructure. Kemp at the time called it a "provocative but predictable decision" and said he was "completely opposed to this blatant overreach and will continue to fight to keep election systems under the control of state government where it belongs."

Dove said the state is among those requesting that the administration of President Donald Trump rescind the critical infrastructure designation. Some committee members, however, challenged Dove over what they said were Kemp’s politicizing of his disagreement with Homeland Security.