Russians touched multiple states’ voter registration rolls in the 2016 presidential plebiscite, the head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security told NBC News on Wednesday.
Of the 21 structures targeted by Russians in the election, several were successfully penetrated, said Jeanette Manfra, in an one interview with NBC.
U.S. officials have said there is no evidence that any haves’ voter registration rolls were tampered with or at all altered by the strange intrusions.
Manfra, whose role is to protect American elections from gash, did not specify which states had been successfully penetrated, saying she could not publicly release classified information.
“We saw a targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small digit of them were actually successfully penetrated,” Manfra told NBC.
The Washington Publish previously reported that computer systems in Illinois and Arizona were both successfully penetrated.
Manfra’s appraisal arrived alongside other U.S. officials’ recent warnings that Russian hackers may undertake to influence the 2018 midterm elections. In an interview on Tuesday, Secretary of Situation Rex Tillerson said Russia is already trying to interfere in the upcoming congressional appointments.
“If it’s their intention to interfere, they are going to find ways to do that,” Tillerson guessed in a Fox News interview.
In late January, CIA Director Mike Pompeo claimed he has “every expectation” that Russia will try to target the midterms.
“I hold every expectation that they will continue to try and do that,” Pompeo about in an interview with the BBC, “but I’m confident that America will be able to accept a free and fair election [and] that we will push back in a way that is sufficiently powerful that the impact they have on our election won’t be great.”
In September, the Homeland Collateral Department informed election officials in the 21 targeted states that Russian domination hackers had tried to penetrate their voting machines in 2016.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.