Jeanette Manfra, the head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed that there was a kind of cyber attack influence on the US Voter registration rolls of over 21 states before the US 2016 Polls. But she added that the hackers’ access to the voter rolls was minimal as could have been the work of Russian Intelligence.
While US President Donald Trump said that all these claims were fake and the investigation jointly made by FBI and CIA was just a political witchcraft, some of the Democrats’ opinion a different voice to this story.
Democrats claim that once the hackers gained access to the voter registration system, they could have removed some valid votes causing chaos on the Election Day leading to an election swing on one side.
Ms. Manfra said that until now there has been no evidence that the Russian have altered the rolls in the last election and so claiming that the poll results were influenced was just naïve.
On the other hand, Johnson, the DHS secretary during the Russian hacking said that the 21 states that were targeted are still not serious and are not doing enough to harden their cybersecurity defenses for the next elections. He added that its high time that either official from White House or a top rank official from Trump Administration should intervene in this matter and issue an order on this note.
However, Manfra disagreed that the US government was going with an unperturbed attitude on this note. She said that five of the major states including Texas and California have first of all denied being attacked in the first place. And moreover, there is no evidence that the interception was deep to trigger a serious concern.
Manfra concluded that 2016 was a wake-up call and now it’s incumbent upon states and the feds to do something that could prevent the democracy being attacked further- hinting at the concerns about the upcoming 2018 midterm elections.
