State election officials are being warned that they are under threat as the 2024 vote approaches — and the risk is very real.
Speaking at the National Association of Secretaries of State in Washington, an FBI official gave a word of caution, reported Stateline on Wednesday.
“The threat environment, unfortunately, is very high,” said Tim Langan, executive assistant director for the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch of the FBI. “It is extremely alarming.”
Since the 2020 election, state and local officials have been plagued by threats to their offices. The report gave an example of Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, who received a bomb threat just hours after he was sworn in that said bombs placed at the state Capitol would "make sure you all end up dead." There were eight similar threats in other states, according to the FBI.
“Hopefully, it’s not a sign of what’s to come this year,” Adams told Stateline. “The benefit of all that we have gone through the last several years is that everybody in this room is psychologically prepared in 2024.”
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He went on to say that when the 2016 election hack attempts raised flags for state and local officials, they began working more closely with cyber-intelligence experts in the federal government.
“We think a lot more creatively today about what could possibly go wrong and what are the challenges than we ever could have thought just four years ago,” Adams explained.
Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told Stateline that there have been "extraordinary" advancements in the tech that would allow countries like China, Iran, North Korea or Russia break into systems.
“We are in a really difficult cybersecurity environment right now,” he said.
