Georgia Secretary of State’s Office Says It Thwarted Cyberattack on Voting Website

• Georgia Secretary of State's Office announced a cyberattack attempt as early presidential voting opened in a few American states.
• The aim was apparently to crash the website used by the state's voters to request absentee ballots.
• Apparently, the attack did not disable the state’s systems, only causing small disruptions.

The Georgia Secretary of State's office said it recently averted a cyberattack aimed at disrupting its voter absentee ballot request site, as early voting for the presidential election began in Georgia and other U.S. states this month.

Despite the attack, there was no interruption in voters' ability to request absentee ballots, according to CNN and Reuters reports. While the cyberattack resulted in temporary system slowdowns, it did not halt operations. 

Gabe Sterling, an official at the Secretary of State's office, confirmed that "it slowed our systems down for a little bit, but it never stopped our systems from working."

This event underscores the resilience of Georgia's electoral infrastructure amidst growing concerns over election security. With early voting underway in Georgia and other states, safeguarding digital platforms against cyber threats remains paramount to maintaining public confidence in the electoral process.

While detailed information about the attack's origin or methods was not disclosed, this incident serves as a stark reminder for state election officials to continuously enhance cybersecurity measures, as electoral systems face ongoing challenges in ensuring security and reliability.

As the November 5, 2024, U.S. presidential election approaches, various nation-backed hackers kept trying to interfere. 

The artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI banned several Iranian accounts linked to an alleged covert influence operation (IO) that used ChatGPT to generate content for various social media accounts and websites. Iranian hackers also reportedly targeted U.S. officials and distributed fake news.

China also allegedly tries to interfere with the American presidential elections, as a huge disinformation network that is suspected to originate from China operates on the X social media platform, using fake accounts that appear to be controlled by AI and mainly engage in leveraging legitimate content they rephrase to create political discord.

In other recent news, the US DoJ charged two Iranian nationals for participating in an online campaign aimed at spreading disinformation in the 2020 Presidential election and for intimidating Americans, undermining voter confidence, sowing discord among the electorate, and exfiltrating the data of 100,000 US voters.