Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is ordering county elections officials to be on guard for the possibility of a cyber attack from Iran after entities have seen an increase in suspicious cyber activity around the country.
Boards of elections are preparing for early presidential primary voting starting next month, meanwhile the spike in suspicious cyber activity is originating from several places, including IP addresses from Iran.
Because of that activity and the tensions between the U.S. and Iran, LaRose has ordered all county boards of elections to block certain Iranian IP addresses.
"What we want to make sure is that we're ready and that we're taking the necessary precautions and that's exactly what this is an abundance of caution to make sure that we are responding to the world's situation as it exists and making sure that our guard is up," says LaRose.
He points out that there have been no successful intrusions, and that voting machines are never online.
Copyright 2020 The Statehouse News Bureau
