By Mica Soellner
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/author/mica-soellner
Russian hackers have recently targeted dozens of state and local governments and have stolen data from at least two servers, according to U.S. officials.
A joint bulletin from the FBI and the Homeland Security Department was posted on Thursday and comes less than two weeks away from Election Day and months after an initial warning was released by intelligence officials regarding disinformation campaigns and election security risks coming from Russia, China, and Iran.
The warning didn't mention any of the specific victims who were targeted, but officials said they don't have any knowledge of election or government operations being affected.
"However, the actor may be seeking access to obtain future disruption options, to influence U.S. policies and actions, or to delegitimize (state and local) government entities," the advisory added.
Chris Krebs, director of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said that the alert was issued to scan country networks for any holes or vulnerabilities in their system, adding that there was access in a couple limited cases to election-related networks.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe announced that Iran and Russia had obtained some voter registration information and that Tehran is using that data to send spoofed emails designed to harm President Trump in the election.
Ratcliffe, along with FBI Director Chris Wray, added that no votes were compromised in their findings and U.S. voters should not be concerned about the security of their system.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/russian-hackers-are-targeting-state-and-local-networks-us-officials-warn