Citing No Evidence, Brian Kemp Accuses Georgia Democrats of Hacking

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.wired.com/story/brian-kemp-georgia-democrats-hacking-claim/

By Lily Hay Newman
Security
Wired.com
11.04.18

IN DECEMBER 2016, Georgia secretary of state Brian Kemp accused the 
Department of Homeland Security of attempting to hack his office's 
systems, which include the Georgia voter registration database. Six months 
later, the DHS inspector general concluded that the allegations were 
unfounded; someone on a DHS computer had simply visited the Georgia 
Secretary of State website. Now, two days before an election in which Kemp 
himself is the Republican candidate for governor, he has levied similarly 
unsupported charges -- this time against his democratic opponents.

The Georgia Secretary of State's office released a short statement on 
Sunday morning that it had opened an investigation into the Democratic 
Party the previous evening, "after a failed attempt to hack the state's 
voter registration system."

The Democratic Party of Georgia sharply denied the accusations in a 
statement to reporters. "Brian Kemp's scurrilous claims are 100 percent 
false, and this so-called investigation was unknown to the Democratic 
Party of Georgia until a campaign operative in Kemp’s official office 
released a statement this morning," wrote Rebecca DeHart, executive 
director of the state’s Democratic Party. "This is yet another example of 
abuse of power by an unethical Secretary of State."

Kemp's office said it has alerted DHS and the FBI. A DHS official told 
WIRED in a statement that, "The State of Georgia has notified us of this 
issue. We defer to the State for further details." The National 
Association of Secretaries of State declined to comment on state-specific 
investigations.

[...]

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