Florida Governor Says Russian Hackers Breached 2 Counties In 2016

Russian hackers breached the systems of two county elections systems in Florida in 2016, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday at a news conference. DeSantis said no data were tampered with and vote tallies were not affected.

The intrusions, which had not ever been publicly confirmed, were first disclosed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report about Russian interference in the 2016 election last month.

“I recently met with the FBI concerning the election issue mentioned in the Mueller report,” DeSantis said. “Two Florida counties experienced intrusion into the supervisor of election networks. There was no manipulation.”

DeSantis said he could not disclose which counties’ networks were compromised, but he said the voter data that the attackers gained access to was already public.

“Nothing that affected the vote count,” DeSantis said.

One sentence in the Mueller report prompted DeSantis’ meeting with the FBI: “We understand the FBI believes that this operation enabled [Russian military intelligence] to gain access to the network of at least one Florida county government” during the 2016 election. Read more

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