LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- California's chief elections officer said Friday the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) believe Russian hackers tried to find weaknesses in the state's election website before last year's presidential election.
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said he was informed "for the first time" by DHS on Friday of last year's attempt, in which Russian cyber actors "scanned" California's website with the intent to "identify weaknesses in a computer or network - akin to a burglar looking for unlocked doors in a house."
"Our office actively monitors scanning activity as part of our routine cyber security protocols," Padilla said in a statement. "We have no information or evidence that our systems have been breached in any way or that any voter information was compromised."
Although DHS confirmed there was no evidence any of the systems were breached or compromised, Padilla expressed serious concern about the failure of National Security Agency (NSA)to provide timely and critical information to America's elections officials."
"It is completely unacceptable that it has taken DHS over a year to inform our office of Russian scanning of our systems, despite our repeated requests for information. The practice of withholding critical information from elections officials is a detriment to the security of our elections and our democracy," said Padilla.
A leaked NSA document earlier this year outlined a Russian effort to hack into devices made by a Florida-based voting software company.
One California county, Humboldt, used the company's software, but did not find any evidence of tampering, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bloomberg News reported in June that during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, hackers hit voting systems or databases in 39 states.
