It's "unacceptable" the Department of Homeland Security took nearly a year after the 2016 vote to notify 21 states that their elections systems had been targeted by hackers, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Friday.
In a statement, Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, declared, "We have to do better in the future."
"Our elections are the bedrock of our democracy, and DHS needs to notify states and localities in real-time when their systems are targeted," he said.
"While I understand that DHS detects thousands of attempted cyber attacks daily, I expect the top election officials of each state to be made aware of all such attempted intrusions, successful or not, so that they can strengthen their defenses…"
The reprimand comes after DHS announced that in the majority of states it had notified of being targeted by hackers, only preparations for hacking were discovered — like scanning to find potential modes for attack.
"[R]ecognizing that state and local officials should be kept informed about cybersecurity risks to election infrastructure, we are working with them to refine our processes for sharing this information while protecting the integrity of investigations and the confidentiality of system owners," DHS spokesman Scott McConnell told The Hill.
DHS didn't say which states were notified, but the Hill reported that Wisconsin announced they were one, and that Alabama, Colorado, California, and Florida also said they'd been targeted. The Associated Press reported others were Maryland, Virginia and Washington.
Illinois and Arizona announced before the election that voter roles connected to the internet had been hacked by Russia.
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