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Florida elections hacking stirs controversy

Posted at 7:04 PM, May 15, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-15 19:04:25-04

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The identity of the two Florida county election offices that were hacked in 2016 remains a mystery.

However, Palm Beach and Martin County officials tell NewsChannel 5 their systems were not hacked in the months leading up to the Presidential election.

Cyber experts say the spearfishing technique used to hack the systems is widely used among hackers trying to gain access to private business computers in Palm Beach County.

"Rather than sending an attack out into the wild you're picking a person and trying to trick that person with information you already know about them and what they do,” says Alan Crowetz of www.inforstream.cc

Governor DeSantis has insisted no info was compromised or votes changed from the hacking.

Experts say damage can depend on how the hacking occurred.

"If it’s a programmer they may change how the election system works, if it’s the supervisor of elections they may change votes, if it's some low-level maintenance person maybe they can only look at the at the data,” Crowezt says.