Georgia secretary of state office says it repelled cyberattack

The caput of state's agency was nan target of an unsuccessful cyberattack earlier this month, nan agency confirmed to CBS News connected Wednesday. 

An charismatic pinch nan caput of state's agency said nan onslaught was an effort to clang nan absentee voting website, and it was discovered erstwhile nan agency noticed a spike successful attempts to entree nan tract 9 days ago, connected Oct. 14. There were complete 420,000 attempts made from astir nan world, which nan charismatic said was a coordinated effort to make nan website crash.

Security experts were yet capable to thwart nan attack. The caput of state's agency said it still does not cognize who was down nan onslaught but suggested it whitethorn person been a overseas country. 

Gabriel Sterling, main operating serviceman for nan office, wrote Thursday evening successful a societal media station that "this was a large triumph for our cyber information squad and our partners. We activity mundane to protect Georgia voters and our systems." In a abstracted post, he said, "The onslaught was detected and mitigated quickly." CNN first reported nan cyberattack attempt.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is alert of nan cyberattack and worked pinch nan Georgia caput of state's agency successful nan aftermath of nan incident, sources confirmed to CBS News. The FBI has not responded to a petition for comment.

Georgia voters person besides been showing up for early voting, which began connected Oct. 15. Early voters shattered records this twelvemonth for nan statesmanlike election, nan caput of state's agency said, much than doubling early voting figures from 2020 connected nan first day, pinch 310,000 ballots cast, compared pinch 136,739 connected nan first time of early voting successful 2020.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger predicted location would beryllium grounds turnout successful Georgia this year, telling CBS News' Margaret Brennan connected "Face nan Nation" Sunday, "You look astatine nan turnout — we're almost pushing 1.4 cardinal who've already voted early aliases who we've accepted their absentee ballots."

Nicole Sganga and Andres Triay contributed to this report.

In:
• Brad Raffensperger
• Georgia
• Election