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US official: Hard to alter US elections through hacking

Posted at 11:02 AM, Sep 14, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-14 14:02:16-04

President Barack Obama's homeland security adviser says it'd be very hard to hack into America's voting systems in a way that could alter an election outcome.

Lisa Monaco spoke Wednesday at an event marking the 10-year anniversary of the Justice Department's National Security Division.

She says U.S. election systems are by design "owned, operated and administered" by local governments -- and that makes it "extremely difficult to have an effect across the board that would result" in a changed outcome.

Monaco says the bigger concern involves efforts to sow confusion or doubt about the resilience of the election system.

It was recently revealed that hackers had targeted election data systems in at least two states.