Ransomware hits election infrastructure in Georgia county

[diva77]

By Brian Fung, CNN Business
Updated 4:23 PM ET, Thu October 22, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/22/tech/ransomware-election-georgia/index.html

A Georgia county is ground zero for what may be the first ransomware attack to hit election infrastructure this political season.

The attack on Hall County — home to Gainesville and located roughly an hour north of Atlanta — was disclosed on Oct. 7, but the impact to election infrastructure is only now coming to light.

Among the county's affected systems were a voter signature database, as well as a voting precinct map hosted on the county's website, according to Katie Crumley, a Hall County spokesperson. The affected systems were first reported by The Gainesville Times.

"We are currently bringing various programs back online, and those two items are included in that process," Crumley said. "However, the voting process for our citizens has not been impacted due to the network issues."

The initial disclosure by county officials said that the attack had hit "critical systems within the Hall County Government networks" but provided few additional details. Crumley declined to discuss further specifics, citing an ongoing investigation.
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that locks up a victim's computer and renders it unusable until the victim pays off the attacker, frequently in bitcoin. This type of cyberattack is worsening, and in recent years ransomware attacks have hit targets as varied as Baltimore's city government, the website of an Illinois public health district and the University of California.
SNIP

[idziak4ever1234]

1. Was waiting for this to happen.

[diva77]

2. Please try to participate in this if you can:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214369398

[JDC]

3. Shocker. Let me guess, They don't "deal w criminals" so

No verification, no vote. "We had no choice but to discard these votes," Gov Kemp said in his Weds morning press conference.

[Hoyt]

4. That paritcular county hasn't skipped a beat as far as election. But wouldn't want to stop folks

from fretting and imaging the worst.


Ransomware hit a Georgia county. That didn't stop its ballot counting.

"Poll workers in Hall County have since caught up on a backlog of absentee ballots, state officials said, and said there’s no danger of the ransomware extending to systems used to cast or count votes. . . . . .

"But the attack does not indicate any broad effort to tamper with U.S. voting or show systemic vulnerabilities to the U.S. election system.

"“They switched over to their paper backups, which is required of them,” said Jordan Fuchs, Georgia’s deputy secretary of state.

"“It took a little bit of work on their part — I think they had 11 days of catch-up to do — and they completed their task,” she said."

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/ransomware-hit-georgia-county-didn-t-stop-its-ballot-counting-n1244601

[Roland99]

5. extremely rural apparently

voted 76% for trump in 2016


Demographics
Hall County remains extremely rural and many of its residents reside in unincorporated areas, accounting for more than half of the county's population.

2000 census
At the 2000 census,[14] 139,277 people, 80,381 households and 80,009 families resided in the county. The population density was 354 per square mile (137/km2). There were 51,046 housing units at an average density of 130 per square mile (50/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 80.75% White, 7.27% Black or African American, 0.34% Native American, 1.35% Asian, 0.17% Pacific Islander, 8.75% from other races, and 1.36% from two or more races. About 19.56% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

[Blue Owl]

6. K&R for exposure

[Mike 03]

7. When I see these stories, I always wonder about the still-classified details of

Russia's 2016 intrusions. Russia planted things on computer systems, including election systems, that they decided not to activate, and I've never seen an article state flatly that those illicit programs were removed from the systems, or even if they could be removed.

[napi21]

8. I live in Hall Cty. We did MI voting I checked....our votes have been tallied. n/t

[CurtEastPoint]

9. Ah! Home to Rev/Esq Asshole Doug Collins.