Cybersecurity

Hackers targeted other systems to find weak spots, Homeland Security says

The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that just because Russian government hackers didn't directly scan election systems in some U.S. states, it doesn't mean they weren't looking to break into them.

DHS spokesman Scott McConnell declined to discuss specific states. But he said hackers looked for vulnerabilities to exploit in other government computer systems in an unspecified number of states as a way to get into the election systems. The other networks were usually connected to the election systems or shared similarities, he said.

The release of additional information came after state officials in Wisconsin and California said they had received conflicting reports from DHS about which of their computer systems were targeted by hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign.