Two U.S. senators on Wednesday asked the FBI to clarify what it did to examine the suspect hack of a Florida-based voting software company with Russian intelligence before elections in 2016.
The Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Amy Klobuchar of Minneota, leader in the federally elected body, requested responses by 12 July on the measures made by the agency in reaction to the violation of VR Systems ‘ computer servers by the FBI’s director Christopher Wray.
Robert Mueller’s report on the interference of Russia in the 2016 election states that “the software which has been created by several U.S. counties to handle voting rooms is mounted on the network of an unnamed business by Kremlin-backed spies.” VR Systems stated that it is considered to be the corporation mentioned in the study. However, the Florida-based Tallahassee has retained that its system has never been penetrated. In a letter last month he informed Wyden that the cybersecurity company Fire Eye carried out a security audit and discovered no proof of an infringement. The audit took place over seven months after the election.
Last week, Homeland Security said its computer specialists will examine the voting facilities provided by VR Systems in North Carolina on request of the State. In the forensic analysis, laptops and computer hard drive replicas used in Democratic Durham County will be investigated to determine whether hacking caused malfunctions in 2016.
Government officials and local authorities said earlier that they did not find any evidence that the voting registration and check-in software system had been targeted by hackers, but never carried out a forensic examination. VR Systems has accused poorly qualified poll employees and insufficient computer maintenance of this problem. A study from a safety adviser employed by the election board of Durham County endorsed this assertion.
Wyden and Klobuchar requested if the FBI had been investigating VR Systems servers and the malfunctioning machinery in Durham County. They also questioned if the agency had reviewed the results of the audit of Fire Eye and information on its main results. VR Systems refused to publish even draft versions of the document, citing the confidentiality of the customer.
Finally, the FBI would like to understand how the FBI intends to work with local and state election officers before the 2020 election to guarantee they are conscious of comfortable cyber security occurrences.
VR Systems, Homeland Security and FBI did not answer requests for comments instantly.
