Florida Dept. Of State Denies Hackers Broke Into Election System
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Is a cyber-attack on Florida's election system possible? Could hackers jimmy election results?
Those are some very important questions being asked following allegations that Russian hackers broke into part of the state's election system.
The White House says you shouldn't be worried.
"Be confident the U.S. government will deploy significant resources to defend our electoral system," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
It has been the subject of Congressional hearing, and certainly hacking an issue in the presidential race.
Hilary Clinton and her campaign emails have become daily fodder from the hacks. The campaign says the Russians are to blame.
Donald Trump says he's is not sure.
Trump ally Roger Stone said he's had "back-channel communications" with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over the release of the thousands of emails.
And while all this happens, Putin just smiles.
"Let's get back to the facts. You deny this, you know the international community denies…" journalist Christiane Amanpour said to Russia's foreign minister.
"No we do not deny it. They don't prove it," Sergey Lavrov said.
News came out Wednesday that a contractor involved with Florida elections was hacked.
Florida's Department of State is denying the allegations, releasing a statement that read:
"We have no indication of a Florida-specific issue. The Florida voter registration data base is secure."
A spokesperson for the department says the state does not even use a vendor for voter registration services.
Can a foreign government hack an election? The answer CBS4's Hank Tester got will surprise you.
Rod Soto is a security researcher and works with HackMiami.
"It is very difficult to modify the vote," Soto said.
So why hack then? The answer is fascinating.
"If i target the companies that produce the equipment, the companies that keep the data and I publish the incursion, it creates the perception that the system is not reliable," Soto said. "Maybe we cannot trust the results of the election."
Confidential voting data made public? The creation of doubt is very powerful in an election that is so volatile, so divisive.
Soto said it "may lead to other vectors, contested, audited, we don't know yet."
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