DHS Making Itself Irrelevant

Recently, the DHS reported to several states that their 2016 elections had been in some way impacted by Russian hackers. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla is not impressed.

“Last Friday, my office was notified by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that Russian cyber actors 'scanned' California’s Internet-facing systems in 2016, including Secretary of State websites. Following our request for further information, it became clear that DHS’ conclusions were wrong,” he wrote in a statement published on Wednesday.

He went on to stress that last Friday's notification from the DHS wasn't just “a year late,” but was also “bad information.”

Now the DHS instead maintains – without any stated evidence – that “Russian scanning activity...occurred on the California Department of Technology statewide network,” rather than Secretary of State websites.

[...]

As for the Department of Technology allegedly being breached, the office said its security systems were able to block “suspect activity.” However, claims that Russians were behind any such attempt remain unsubstantiated.

Padilla's statement comes after California – along with 20 other states – was told last week that its systems were targeted last year “by Russian government cyber actors seeking vulnerabilities and access to US election infrastructure.”

The DHS' mistake in California is the second time in a week that the department's credibility has come into question, as it was forced to backtrack earlier this week on its claim that Russian hackers attempted to hack Wisconsin's election infrastructure.

[...]

A congressional investigation into Russia’s alleged meddling in the US election has been dragging on 10 months, with any hard evidence explicitly pointing to the role of Russian authorities yet to be produced.

  RT

We don't need no steenkeen evidence.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.