Alachua election officials say they were targeted but systems were not breached

Speaking Tuesday at the Time 100 event, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton claimed that U.S. government officials have "recently" revealed widespread Russian access to the election systems in all 67 Florida counties.

"Just recently, the government, our government, finally acknowledged that the Russians were in the county election systems of every county in Florida," Clinton said during a moderated discussion at the magazine's A-list event.

>>RELATED: Mueller report: FBI believes election system in Florida was hacked

Allegations of Russian hacking into Florida electoral systems surfaced last summer as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

The Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Office is not aware of any breach of its systems, according to spokesman T.J. Pyche.

On Thursday, the Florida Department of State, which oversees elections, sharply rebuked Clinton's assertions. In a statement, Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee said: “I spoke with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security when the Mueller report was released and they assured me that Florida’s 2016 election results were not compromised in any way. Additionally, there has been zero information released from the U.S. government to support Secretary Clinton’s claims. Her rhetoric, without any proof or evidence, is irresponsible, dangerous to our democracy and erodes confidence in our elections."

Lee's statement also added: “The recently released Mueller report only had vague details about the FBI’s belief that the network of one Florida county government was accessed. The Department and Supervisors have made cyber security our top priority and we have invested millions of dollars making our state a leader in election security. The results of our efforts are evident in the fact that the 2018 elections in Florida were completely secure. We will continue to make elections security our top priority as we head into 2020.”

In an indictment unsealed July 13, Mueller charged that Russian hackers tried to breach elections systems in "numerous Florida counties" in the final weeks before the 2016 presidential election.

After the indictment came out, Florida elections officials flatly stated the attempt "was not in any way successful." Former Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher said at the time the county's system was not affected by the hacking attempt.

Neither Mueller nor other U.S. government officials have identified the counties said to have been targeted by Russian hackers.

>>RELATED: Indictment says Florida played role in Russian election-meddling

Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which was released April 18, also noted Russian efforts to access one Florida county's elections system. Mueller's report cited the FBI as believing the Florida county was compromised by the Russian military intelligence unit, the GRU.

"We understand the FBI believes that this operation enabled the GRU to gain access to the network of at least one Florida county government," the report states. "The (special counsel's) office did not independently verify that belief and, as explained above, did not undertake the investigative steps that would have been necessary to do so."

The Florida Department of State issued a statement the day the Mueller report was released saying it "reached out to the FBI to inquire which county may have been accessed, and they declined to share this information with us."

Reached today, Alachua County election officials said their systems are secure. As previously reported, a malicious email targeting the office, posing as a vendor, was received on Nov. 1, 2016, but was not opened by anyone in the office, Pyche said.

"Our office had contact at that time with both the FBI and DHS, both of which indicated no active threats that appeared to have compromised our systems," he said in an email to The Sun.

"Our office network is protected both by extensive local security connected with our County IT department, as well as active monitoring through services from the DHS Center for Internet Security. Reviews of all reports from these systems have found no sign of our network being breached or compromised," Pyche said.

The Gainesville Sun contributed to this report.