HARTFORD — Connecticut officials have been notified by the federal government that the state's online voter registration system was targeted in hacking efforts by Russia about a year ago.
The first notification from the Department of Homeland Security came about a week ago.
"I guess I was surprised by the language they used when they said that Russian agents, which I guess means agencies, were some of the IP addresses, that was a surprise to me," said Denise Merrill, CT Secretary of the State. "We’re on alert now."
Connecticut was among more than 20 states that received similar notifications.
Merrill says no systems were breached and no personal information was obtained by the attempted hack.
The disclosures to states come as a special counsel probes whether there was any coordination during the 2016 campaign between Russia and associates of President Donald Trump.
"The good news is we have pretty strong firewalls , we have pretty strong protections, it worked, but I think we need to take it seriously because we are finally finding out it really did happen," said Merrill.