WASHINGTON (AP) – The state of Georgia is asking President-elect Donald Trump to investigate what it described as “failed cyberattacks” on its secretary of state’s network that it traced to the U.S. Homeland Security Department.
In a letter Tuesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said his staff has uncovered nine more instances this year in which computers they traced back to the Homeland Security Department apparently attempted to infiltrate the state’s network between Feb. 2 and Nov. 8. His letter followed earlier complaints that his office had detected what it called “a large attack on our system” one week after the presidential election. Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kemp said the additional scanning activity from Washington didn’t raise major red flags because it was considered less intrusive, but he said the timing was concerning because it corresponded to dates and times he spoke critically about the department’s plan to designate elections systems as “critical infrastructure.”
The dates include the date Kemp testified against the agency’s plan before the House Oversight Committee, the day of a conference call discussing the designation a critical infrastructure designation with Georgia officials and Election Day, he said.
Discussions about whether to designate elections systems as critical infrastructure surfaced after hackers targeted the voter registration systems of more than 20 states in the months prior to the election. Some state officials worried the designation would amount to a federal takeover of election systems.