Ohio's Secretary of State has ordered county election officials to be on guard for the possibility of a cyber attack from Iran, citing a spike in suspicious activity around the country.
Ohio Public Radio's Andy Chow reports.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose says boards of elections are preparing for early presidential primary voting starting next month, and meanwhile there's been an increase in suspicious cyber activity, some of which can be traced back to IP addresses from Iran.
Because of that activity and the tensions between the U.S. and Iran, LaRose has ordered all county boards of elections to block certain Iranian IP addresses.
LaRose: "What we want to make sure is that we're ready and that we're taking the necessary precautions and that's exactly what this is an abundance of caution to make sure that we are responding to the world's situation as it exists and making sure that our guard is up."
He points out that there have been no successful intrusions, and that voting machines are never online.
