Election officials in Humboldt County are checking their voter data after a leaked National Security Agency document alleged that Russian operatives hacked one of the county’s voting software contractors. According to a NSA memo published Monday by the news website The Intercept, Russia’s military intelligence unit, the G.R.U., successfully hacked a Florida voting software company, VR Systems, last summer. That hack then led to a broader hacking attempt of local election boards around the country just days before the November election. Humboldt County, population 136,000, might not seem like a top target for the Russians. The far-north county, which includes the city of Eureka, is more famous for its redwoods, coastline and marijuana crop than its politics. But the county Office of Elections had a contract with elections company Hart InterCivic, and Hart used VR Systems for its electronic poll books — the devices poll workers use to check in voters at the ballot.
There’s no evidence that voting data in Humboldt County — or any other California county — was accessed by hackers. The county may not have even been a target of the hacking attempt.
But news of the hack and the local connection to VR has raised concerns, and officials are responding quickly. On Wednesday morning, County Clerk Kelly Sanders held a conference call with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the IT staff of the California Secretary of State’s Office to conduct in-depth diagnostic checks into the county elections systems, Sanders said in an interview.
Full Article: Humboldt County shores up voting systems after Russian hack.