TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Calling it a “growing threat” to Florida’s election systems, Gov. Rick Scott and state election officials want to spend more than $2 million in the coming year on cybersecurity.
Scott included the request in budget recommendations he gave to the Florida Legislature last week.
The Department of State, which oversees the state’s elections office, wants to hire five employees and spend nearly $500,000 to create a new cybersecurity unit. The governor is also asking that legislators set aside $1.9 million in grants for the state’s 67 local election supervisors. The grants would be used to monitor security threats.
A classified report leaked in June suggested hackers stole information from a voting systems vendor and used it to send phishing messages to local elections officials nationwide including Florida.
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