Foreign hackers attempted to restrict voters in Georgia from requesting absentee ballots for the upcoming presidential election in a targeted cyberattack this month, according to state election officials.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office said on Wednesday its cyber defenses thwarted the attack after thousands of IP addresses from different countries flooded an election website — that allows voters in the battleground state to request their absentee ballots ahead of the Nov. 5 election — with phony traffic, CNN reported.
Gabe Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia state office, which oversees elections, believes the attack came from a foreign country, explaining it had “the hallmarks of a foreign power or foreign entity [acting] at the behest of a foreign power.”
“From talking to experts, it felt like a probing attack, saying, ‘Hey, if we do this, what will they do in response?’” Sterling said.
The source of the breach has not yet been confirmed by federal officials, according to CNN.
The attack — which didn’t disrupt voters’ ability to request their ballots — comes amid record-breaking early voter turnout in the battleground state.
Early voting began in Georgia on Oct. 15.
“It slowed our systems down for a little bit, but it never stopped our systems from working,” Sterling told CNN.
The Peach State is widely considered to be one of the seven crucial battlegrounds in the 2024 cycle, having gone for President Biden in 2020 after backing Republicans in the previous six presidential races.
