The office of Georgia’s secretary of state repelled a cyberattack earlier this month that appeared to be an attempt to shut down the website voters use to request absentee ballots ahead of the election.
The threat was discovered after the agency noticed hundreds of thousands of attempts to access the site on Oct. 14, one day before early voting began in Georgia, the secretary of state’s office confirmed with USA TODAY.
While cyber security experts were able to thwart the attack, the secretary of state’s office said it still does not know for certain who was behind it. Gabriel Sterling, chief operating office for Georgia’s secretary of state’s office, told CNN the threat may have originated from a foreign country.
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Officials: Attempted cyberattack did not disrupt absentee ballot website
CNN first reported the cyberattack attempt Wednesday night after election officials confirmed to the outlet that hundreds of thousands of IP addresses from numerous countries flooded the Georgia website.