URGENT: FBI & Homeland Security Investigating Serious "Suspicious Activity" On Countywide Network
Oct 24, 2023 2:11 am
Signature Verifications Halted Today & Court Hearings Impacted Because Of Vague "Suspicious Activity"
On Sunday, 10/22/2023. at 6 p.m., The County Manager put out a vague statement that gave out very little information and appeared to try to downplay the seriousness of the situation.
"Clark County on Saturday, Oct. 21, became aware of suspicious activity on the countywide network.
County Information Technology is actively looking into the situation and working on a solution. Updates will be posted on the county website at www.clark.wa.gov, and linked to the information ribbon at the top of the page.
Currently, some parts of the county website are not available including the Property Information Center and Geographic Information Services. Some county services may not be available at this time.
In the Elections Office, this issue will briefly delay processing of voter registration updates.
Ballot tabulation and scanning occurs on standalone servers and are not affected by this situation.
The election management system and voter registration database are part of VoteWA which is a statewide system operated by the Office of the Secretary of State. VoteWA was not affected by this issue.
A little before noon on Monday Cathie Garber sent out an email stating, "the county had network issues over the weekend. The caused the Secretary of State's Office to temporarily disable our access to VoteWA until it is cleared up. We anticipate having access to VoteWA by close of business today... Signature verification will begin on Wednesday."
Notice the minimizing description of "network issues" which is a significant understatement of what is actually developing. This fits with the County Manager's above statement that tried to downplay it and give very little substantive information regarding the "breach" which implies something more nefarious. This "network issue" has delayed signature verification for two days (at minimum) and also impacted court hearings as well. Plus, Cathie Garber told some of my sources that Homeland Security and the FBI are involved and investigating... this sound like a "network issue" to you?
Stay tuned for more as this develops...
