In a recent development, the Georgia secretary of state's office managed to repel a cyberattack on the website used by voters to request absentee ballots. The attack, believed to have originated from a foreign country, was thwarted with the assistance of tech firm Cloudflare.
Despite the hackers' attempts to disrupt the website, the state's cyber defenses held strong, ensuring that there was no interruption to voters' ability to request ballots. Gabe Sterling, an official in Georgia's secretary of state's office, confirmed that while the attack did slow down the systems temporarily, it did not prevent them from functioning.
The nature of the cyberattack, with its origins likely overseas, raised concerns of potential foreign involvement. Sterling described the attack as having 'the hallmarks of a foreign power or a foreign entity acting at the behest of a foreign power.'
According to Sterling, the attack involved hundreds of thousands of IP addresses from various countries flooding the Georgia website with fake traffic. He characterized it as a probing attack, designed to test the response of the state's cybersecurity measures.
Following the incident, the FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) were informed and collaborated with the Georgia secretary of state's office. While the FBI declined to comment on the matter, CISA directed inquiries to officials in Georgia.
This cyberattack serves as a reminder of the ongoing threats faced by election infrastructure and the importance of robust cybersecurity measures to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process.
