OKCyberGeek🇺🇸

ELECTION DAY CYBERATTACKS: THE ATTEMPTS WERE REAL. THE WARNING SIGNS WERE EVERYWHERE While Americans were focused on casting ballots and watching election results, election offices across the country were dealing with a series of cyber threats targeting the very systems voters and election officials depend on. The incidents reported included: · Unauthorized probing: Attempts to identify weaknesses and break into an election office's online systems. · Credential attacks: Repeated attempts to guess login credentials at an election-related agency, with malicious traffic from the same IP address subsequently reported by other election offices. · Drop-box locator disruptions: Repeated surges of automated traffic targeting an online ballot drop-box locator, forcing officials to add CAPTCHA protections. · Washington State attack: A cyberattack targeting the state's ballot-box map temporarily took the service offline before officials restored it. · Additional suspicious traffic: Election-related websites experienced unusual spikes in activity, raising concerns about possible disruption. · Phishing threats: Federal warnings had already highlighted attempts to steal election officials' credentials and sensitive information. The reported incidents did not establish that votes were changed, ballots were manipulated, or election results were compromised. Several of the attempted intrusions were unsuccessful. That is important - but so is the fact that these systems were being actively targeted. And here's the bigger issue: states are carrying more of the election-security burden after federal staffing, services, and funding were cut back. CISA says technical assistance remains available upon request, but the federal posture has changed. This is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to pay attention. Election systems are part of our national security infrastructure. They must be protected before, during, and after Election Day - not simply declared secure because an attack failed. We should have proof the attacks failed – and what if anything was breached. There is much more to unpack here. In upcoming posts, We'll dig into several of these incidents individually: what was targeted, how the attacks worked, what officials did to stop them, and what these events reveal about the state of election cybersecurity in America. The attempts deserve scrutiny. The defenses deserve examination. And the public deserves answers. #Unite4Freedom #ElectionSecurity #CyberAttack #Hackers