Election Hacks Can Legally Be Concealed
Election Hacks Can Legally Be Concealed
https://www.courthousenews.com/election-hacks-can-legally-be-concealed/
WASHINGTON (AP) — If the FBI discovers that foreign hackers have infiltrated the networks of your county election office, you may not find out about it until after voting is over. And your governor and other state officials may be kept in the dark, too.
There’s no federal law compelling state and local governments to share information when an electoral system is hacked. And a federal policy keeps details secret by shielding the identity of all cyber victims regardless of whether election systems are involved.
Election officials are in a difficult spot: If someone else’s voting system is targeted, they want to know exactly what happened so they can protect their own system. Yet when their own systems are targeted, they may be cautious about disclosing details. They must balance the need for openness with worries over undermining any criminal investigation. And they want to avoid chaos or confusion, the kind of disruption that hackers want.
The secrecy surrounding foreign hacks is not a hypothetical issue. The public still doesn’t know which Florida counties were breached by Russian agents in the 2016 election. Rick Scott, Florida’s governor in 2016 and now a U.S. senator, was not told at the time and didn’t learn most of the details until this year.
The threat to electoral systems is real. Federal officials believe Russian agents in 2016 searched for vulnerabilities in election systems in all 50 states. And the nation’s intelligence chiefs warn that Russia and other nations remain interested in interfering in U.S. elections.
Experts worry the White House hasn’t highlighted the threat as President Trump says it’s OK for foreign countries to provide damaging information on his political rivals, the subject of an impeachment inquiry led by the U.S. House of Representatives.
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