Despite indictments last week over Russian hacking and interference in the 2016 elections, Wisconsin’s elections remained safe.
Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney says Wisconsin’s actual electoral databases were never compromised. “Somebody associated with Russia scanned the firewalls that protect the Wisconsin election system. They didn’t get in. It’s like a burglar driving past your house.”
Magney says the commission is taking further steps to secure the elections. Clerks across the state will be going through extra security training this year, learning how to protect themselves from phishing and other attempts to compromise their accounts into the elections database.
“The users of that system are going to be required to take a basic security course that’s going to teach them about things like phishing and passwords and other types of things they need to do to make sure our system’s secure.”
That training will be taking place between now and the end of the year.
