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After Mueller Report, Florida Governor Says 2 Counties Were Hacked in 2016 Election

The recent report into Russian election meddling released by special counsel Robert Mueller indicated that federal authorities suspected one county had been hacked.

paper-ballot
Election workers counting paper ballots.
(AP/M. Spencer Green)
By DPA

Russian hackers were able to penetrate the election systems of two counties in the south-eastern state of Florida, the governor said on Tuesday, but assured voters that there was no manipulation of results.

The recent report into Russian election meddling released by special counsel Robert Mueller indicated that federal authorities suspected one county had been hacked.

"I recently met with the FBI concerning the election issue mention in the Mueller report," Ron DeSantis said at a press conference broadcast on local television. The FBI is the federal police.

"Two Florida counties experienced intrusions into the supervisor of elections networks. There was no manipulation of anything," he said, but voter data was accessed.

It appears that the hackers used a spear-phishing campaign to target a company that was involved in the voting system.

Such a campaign often involves sending emails which appear to be legitimate, but actually contain links that allow systems to be penetrated.

The Mueller report concluded that Russia did meddle in the 2016 US election but found no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

(c)2019 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)

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