A ransomware attack has reportedly disabled a Georgia county election database used to verify voter signatures to authenticate absentee ballots. AP reported that this is the first case of a ransomware attack impacting an election system this year. The early October attack against Hall County's systems also brought down a voting precinct map and interrupted phone service.
More:
- Registration Coordinator Kay Wimpye said employees can still verify voter signatures by manually pulling hard copies of voter registration cards or using a state database that has been unaffected by the outages.
- U.S. officials have expressed concern that a well-timed ransomware attack poses the gravest threat to the November election.
- State and local governments have been a favorite target of ransomware attackers.
