National security agencies wary of cyberattacks after 'boring' election night
Officials said it was 'just another Tuesday on the Internet'
While the U.S. successfully deflected attempted cyberattacks on Election Day, the country is "not out of the woods yet," national intelligence leaders warned.
A senior defense official assured Fox News on Tuesday that "no country has the ability to change the outcome of the election" and that there was "no evidence" a foreign adversary had gained access to election infrastructure despite previous attempts to influence the contest.
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While Tuesday was "boring," senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned that the "attack surface is shifting."
They pointed to election-results reporting as the next target in which hackers would implement the "Five D's," or "demand, defacement, denial of service, disinformation and disruption."
Homeland Security officials pointed to a vendor having difficulty with a website in Texas but noted that the state and county government had been able to pass information directly to the media.
Florida's Osceola County reportedly had some Internet connection issues, requiring local officials to drive election results to a central location for reporting.
That wasn't the only problem in the Sunshine State, where federal officials warned of possible cyberattacks on hospitals.
"The Internet is a rough neighborhood sometimes, [with] suspicious and potentially dangerous traffic," the agencies told reporters. "[Florida's] layered defense worked."
The officials also pointed out that Ohio's Franklin County had been able to use backup paper poll books when its electronic registration system crashed.
"We're seeing the resiliency working," the officials said.
While "a lot could happen" over the next few days, the agencies said that Tuesday's success in thwarting bad actors is a "credit to the officials who have taken this seriously over the past few years," as well as the "impressive coordination amongst the federal government systems."
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They told opponents: "You're going to have to bring a better game to the fight next time."
"Ultimately, we're playing this one out as the election proceeds, and that includes the certification process," they concluded. "It's a 'You know it when you see it.'"