"It was late June, and something strange was happening on Arizona's online portal for political candidates. Images of the candidates were disappearing. Photos of the Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini were popping up in their place. The state would later come to believe it was an attack from an Iranian government-affiliated group. When they first discovered the threat, though, they were in the dark - and they needed help."
"Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes' office took action to contain the threat, which he says did not impact personal voter information. But one thing he didn't do was contact the federal agency that would have once been among Fontes' first calls: the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)."
"But since the beginning of President Donald Trump's term, CISA has faced mass staffing cuts, reassignments to immigration-related work, and recent furloughs induced by the ongoing government shutdown. The Trump administration has requested CISA's $3 billion budget be slashed by nearly half a million dollars and cut a reported third of its"
Late June brought unauthorized alterations to Arizona's online candidate portal, where candidate images vanished and images of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini appeared. State officials later attributed the incident to an Iranian government-affiliated group, and Arizona's Secretary of State's office contained the threat without apparent exposure of personal voter information. The office did not contact the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA, within the Department of Homeland Security, coordinates cybersecurity information and assists organizations running critical infrastructure, including elections and sanitation, in preparing for and responding to cyber and physical threats. Since the start of President Trump's term, CISA has experienced staffing cuts, reassignments to immigration-related tasks, furloughs linked to a government shutdown, and proposed budget reductions.
Read at The Verge
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