The majority of the activity during the 2016 presidential election turns out to be "simple scanning", which happens all the time across the web, according to the DHS National Programs Security Chief.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Russian hackers never attacked a single US state voting system during the 2016 presidential election, Department of Homeland Security National Programs Security Chief Christopher Krebs told the US House of Representatives.

"The majority of the activity was simple scanning. Scanning happens all the time across the web… I would not describe that as an attack," Krebs told a joint hearing of the House Oversight Subcommittees on Wednesday. "Not a single of the 21 states were actually attacked… When you characterize these things as attacks that is overstating… If that context was not provided I apologize."

Krebs is the senior official performing the duties of the Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate in the DHS, where he oversees cyber and physical infrastructure security. He was replying to a request for details on the alleged hacking by Congresswoman Robin Kelly.

Kelly complained that the report on the alleged hacking that the DHS had sent to Congress was a script read in a telephone conversation that was only 13 sentences long, that did not refer to any specific state or any specific state and that provided no evidence at all.