The Mueller report raises new questions about Russia's piracy goals in 2016: NPR

Although Special Advocate Robert Mueller's report made headlines, he also gave new details about Russia's attempts to hack into American electoral systems.

In particular, the report states: "We understand that the FBI believes that this operation has allowed [Russian military intelligence] to access the network of at least one Florida County Government "during the 2016 campaign.

This news was announced by Paul Lux, president of the Florida Association of State Election Auditors – who works closely with federal authorities to protect their electoral systems against such attacks.

"I have not even heard a whisper" about such a violation, Lux told NPR, noting that the report was referring to a network of "county" government offices, not specifically to a "office" elections, although both are frequently connected.

It is unusual for such a violation to happen and Florida officials do not know it. In the past two years, the country's election officials have been working with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to share information on potential security threats. They have set up several national communication networks specifically for this purpose.

In a statement released Thursday, the Florida State Department also stated that it "had no knowledge or evidence of any successful hacking attempts at the county level during the elections. After reading the new information published in the Mueller report, the ministry immediately contacted the FBI to find out which county could have been consulted and refused to share this information with us. "

Federal officials did not want to confirm or deny the Florida computer hacking incident, but an informed official told NPR that details to identify victims of such a cyber attack would not be shared with the police. other than the victim. Instead, the official said the federal authorities would only share relevant information that could be used to protect others from similar incidents.

Other 2016 Russian targets in Florida

It was known for some time that a company providing voter registration systems to many Florida counties had been the target of a phishing campaign by the Russians in 2016. Hackers Computer companies then used the information collected on the company's network to send malicious e-mails to more than 120 of its Florida customers.

The company – identified elsewhere by VR Systems, based in Tallahassee – said it had warned customers shortly before the 2016 elections to be on the lookout for fake emails and not to open any attachments.

The Mueller report said that a document attached to e-mails was "coded with malicious software (usually called a Trojan horse) that allowed the GRU to access the infected computer." VR Systems told NPR in 2017 that to the best of its knowledge, none of its customers had opened malicious e-mails.

The Special Council report also stated that Russian intelligence services had installed malware on the provider's network, which VR Systems denies.

In a statement released Thursday, the company's chief operating officer, Ben Martin, said: "We do not agree with the special advocate's report because the best experts in Cybersecurity, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, have been testing our network many times since 2016 and they have found no indication of a malware violation or installation on our corporate network. ".

Martin said the company has since taken steps to ensure the security of its systems, adding, "While we are proud of these efforts, we know that no system is ever completely secure and we are working relentlessly every day to protect our systems and customers. "

In fact, VR Systems is one of the more than two dozen electoral corporations that sit on the new government coordination council, which works with DHS and the FBI on cybersecurity. The council was created in response to Russia's efforts in 2016 to interfere with the elections.

VR Systems was also the provider of poorly functioning electronic voting records on polling day in Durham County, California, in 2016. The state believes that mistakes made by voters and election officials were responsible, but that he has not yet determined the cause.

The state election office said in a statement on Thursday that he had contacted VR Systems to verify that it was fine with the vendor mentioned in the Mueller report (the name of the company is redacted) and to obtain assurances that his poll books, which are still used in some counties in North Carolina, are safe.

The Mueller report notes another successful violation in the summer of 2016, involving the voter registration system of Illinois.

According to the report, Russian hackers have successfully exploited a vulnerability on the state election council website, thus giving them access to the archives of millions of voters in Illinois. Hackers were able to obtain personal information from 500,000 voters before the state detects and stops the violation.

The report also noted that Russian military intelligence officers had scanned several electoral websites of states and localities looking for vulnerabilities, including more than two dozen during a two-day period in July 2016.

There is no evidence that these hacking attempts – successful or otherwise – have affected operations or the outcome of the 2016 elections. Some cyber security experts have, however, mentioned the possibility of hackers installing malware that is not detected. In addition, the mere existence of cyberattacks against voting systems has contributed to undermining voter confidence in elections.

Illinois officials say they believe their system is now secure, but an election council spokesman, Matt Dietrich, also said: "We never say we are 100% sure. we say, it is that we believe to have a length in advance of all the pirates who are there ".