Officials in Arizona disclosed having contained a pro-Iranian hack of its statewide online political candidate portal in late June without the intervention of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, whose efforts in ensuring election security were noted to have declined under President Donald Trump, CyberScoop reports.
The attack, which occurred a day following the U.S.'s military strikes against Iranian nuclear sites, involved the defacement of the candidate portal with photos of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, according to Arizona Secretary of State Chief Information Security Officer Michael Moore, who had initially sought the help of the state's Department of Homeland Security to secure the portal noted to be a legacy system. Such statewide collaboration in addressing the hack has been necessary as CISA has removed federal cybersecurity advisors as part of Trump's cost-cutting measures. "In the past, CISA would have led the charge [to coordinate around the SharePoint flaw]. I didn't get an email from CISA until [Monday] morning warning about the event, and thats too late. This started on Friday morning and the damage was done by Monday morning," said Moore.
In a statement provided to SC Media, a DHS spokesperson said: "The Secretary of State's criticism is misguided, CISA has been working with the State of Arizona on this issue. Here are the facts: In late June, the state requested assistance which was provided by CISA. On July 1st the Arizona Secretary of State posted a notice on their website and took their candidate portal offline for several days ahead of their primary election. Since then CISA has been working with Arizona and has provided direct assistance to support their response efforts."
The attack, which occurred a day following the U.S.'s military strikes against Iranian nuclear sites, involved the defacement of the candidate portal with photos of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, according to Arizona Secretary of State Chief Information Security Officer Michael Moore, who had initially sought the help of the state's Department of Homeland Security to secure the portal noted to be a legacy system. Such statewide collaboration in addressing the hack has been necessary as CISA has removed federal cybersecurity advisors as part of Trump's cost-cutting measures. "In the past, CISA would have led the charge [to coordinate around the SharePoint flaw]. I didn't get an email from CISA until [Monday] morning warning about the event, and thats too late. This started on Friday morning and the damage was done by Monday morning," said Moore.
In a statement provided to SC Media, a DHS spokesperson said: "The Secretary of State's criticism is misguided, CISA has been working with the State of Arizona on this issue. Here are the facts: In late June, the state requested assistance which was provided by CISA. On July 1st the Arizona Secretary of State posted a notice on their website and took their candidate portal offline for several days ahead of their primary election. Since then CISA has been working with Arizona and has provided direct assistance to support their response efforts."
