Georgia's secretary of state: "DHS tried to breach our firewall"

[Locutus]

Georgia’s secretary of state has claimed the Department of Homeland Security tried to breach his office’s firewall and has issued a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asking for an explanation.

Brian Kemp issued a letter to Johnson on Thursday after the state’s third-party cybersecurity provider detected an IP address from the agency’s Southwest D.C. office trying to penetrate the state’s firewall. According to the letter, the attempt was unsuccessful.

The attempt took place on Nov. 15, a few days after the presidential election. The office of the Georgia Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing the state’s elections.

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https://www.cyberscoop.com/georgia-hack-dhs-brian-kemp-jeh-johnson/

 

[Angstrom]

Oups

 

[Locutus]

Exclusive: DHS Says Georgia Hack May Have Been Rogue Employee

Officials tell members of Congress the attack on state firewall could have been inside job

The Department of Homeland Security told members of congress Friday that a rogue federal employee may have been responsible for a November hack-attack that targeted the Georgia secretary of state’s system, LifeZette has learned.

On Friday afternoon DHS initiated a conference call with members of Georgia’s congressional delegation to discuss the cyber-attack, a Capitol Hill staffer with knowledge of the call told LifeZette.

DHS officials said on the call that there were two possible explanations for the hack, the source said. Either a malicious third-party mirrored the DHS IP address linked to the hack — or someone within the department executed the attempted infiltration without authorization. DHS is currently investigating both possibilities.

At the invitation of Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), staff from the House Oversight Committee and Homeland Security Committee also participated on the call, another source with knowledge of the situation confirmed.

The emergency call with the Georgia delegation came in response to a strongly worded letter sent by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Thursday, on which the entire Georgia delegation to Congress was copied.

“The private-sector security provider that monitors the agency’s firewall detected a large unblocked scan even on November 15 at 8:43 AM. The event was an IP address (216.81.81.80) attempting to scan certain aspects of the Georgia Secretary of State’s infrastructure. The attempt to breach our system was unsuccessful,” Kemp wrote.

“I’m am writing you to ask whether DHS was aware of this attempt and, if so, why DHS was attempting to breach our firewall.”


The attack itself could have been an attempt to search for vulnerabilities in Georgia’s firewall. The congressional aide described the nature of the cyber-attack to as like “trying to get into a car by trying all the doors, or trying to open all the windows of a house.” However as of now the purpose of the attack and motives behind it are still being investigated.

With few concrete answers from DHS so far, the aide said there is a lot of skepticism about the department's innocence in the attempted breach. “There’s a lot of mistrust at the moment,” the source told LifeZette.


Exclusive: DHS Says Georgia Hack May Have Been Rogue Employee | LifeZette

 

[darkbeaver]

The election that wasn't. I've been castrated and stoned and crucified here in the past. For suggesting the future might be like it is today. I was a rogue employee, always a rogue employee. The DHS is a highly unreliable source of reality. The homeland they protect is not in north America, it is protected though and stuffed with yankee dollars squeezeed out of stupid yanks.When will they rise up and throw off thier oppressors? John Wayne would have sprung into action about twenty years ago, what the fuk are you twats waiting for? Yer armed but yer headless. Get it done America. I know yer seventy-five % real people, ya use firewood and have gardens. When will you start to hang your politicians?