More states and local election boards have asked the Department of Homeland Security to help with cybersecurity, the department announced .
The total, which has
been steadily rising in recent weeks, has reached 33 state and 11 county
or local election agencies, DHS said.
More than two dozen states were known to have requested help before the updated tally.
DHS
has been urging states to take advantage of its resources, which
include scanning systems for vulnerabilities and recommendations for
improving cybersecurity on election and voter registration systems.
The update from Secretary Jeh Johnson warned those on the fence to make a decision.
"Time is a factor. There are only 29 days until election day, and it can
take up to two weeks from the time we receive authorization to run the
scans and identify vulnerabilities," Johnson said. "It can then take at
least an additional week for state and local election officials to
mitigate any vulnerabilities on systems that we may find."
While it would be extremely difficult for any hackers to affect the
outcome of the presidential election by attacking voting machines,
experts say voter registration databases could be more vulnerable to
tampering.
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