Mississippi Secretary of State

Summary

A distributed denial-of-service attack targeted Mississippi state websites during midterm elections, causing periodic inaccessibility but not compromising internal election systems or vote integrity. A Russian hacker group claimed responsibility via Telegram, alleging intent to disrupt election-related sections and threatening attacks on the Democratic National Committee, though U.S. cybersecurity officials found no evidence of widespread coordination and could not confirm the attack's origin. State officials reassured the public that election infrastructure remained secure despite the external website disruptions, while federal authorities characterized the incident as isolated and unrelated to voting processes.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

On November 8, 2022, during U.S. midterm elections, multiple Mississippi state government websites experienced periodic inaccessibility due to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The attack generated an abnormally large volume of traffic directed at web infrastructure, though officials confirmed it exclusively affected external voter-facing content and did not compromise internal election systems, voting processes, or vote tabulation. The Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office publicly reassured residents that election systems remained secure despite the disruption. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) officials monitoring election infrastructure assessed no specific or credible threats capable of disrupting election operations or undermining vote integrity. A Russian hacker group claimed responsibility via Telegram, stating it targeted the Mississippi Secretary of State’s website specifically to disrupt election-related sections and announced intentions to attack the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as a "gift" to Republicans. Publicly available downtime tracking indicated the DNC website experienced outages that day, though causation remained unverified.

State officials, including Mississippi Secretary of State spokeswoman Elizabeth Holbert Jonson, acknowledged awareness of the hacker group’s claims but emphasized no confirmation regarding the attack’s origin. DHS officials separately noted no evidence linking the incident to a coordinated or widespread campaign, despite the Russian group’s public statements. They attributed technical issues in various jurisdictions, including Maricopa County, Arizona, to routine Election Day glitches unrelated to malicious activity. The incident coincided with heightened tensions following a November 7 Telegram post by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman with Kremlin ties, openly admitting past and ongoing Russian interference in U.S. elections to subvert democracy. Mississippi’s response focused on public transparency, maintaining voter confidence in election security, and collaboration with federal partners to monitor systems. No further disruptions to election processes or additional compromises were reported following the initial attack.

Sources

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