Report: Sources identify Florida's Washington County as 1 of 2 in Russian hack

TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - According to a report from the Washington Post, one of the Florida counties whose election database was hacked is Washington County.

Two unnamed officials told the Washington Post the Russian military's spy agency hacked into the election database of the Panhandle county, which has about 25,000 residents, during the 2016 election.

Meanwhile, Florida's congressional delegation got a classified briefing Thursday from the FBI about the attack on two county election servers. They emerged more worried than before after investigators could not confirm voter data was not changed.

Officials say it was not possible for hackers to have changed vote totals, but it's clear they could have changed whether someone was even eligible to vote.

St. Petersburg Rep. Charlie Crist was blunt when FOX 13 asked whether he was confident the Russians didn't alter voter records.

"[I am] not confident at all," he told FOX 13's Evan Axelbank.

In other words, we don't know if the Russians acted on their ability to alter voter data, switch a voter to "ineligible," or even turn off a request for a mail ballot. 

The FBI told the delegation, whose members were reluctantly sworn to secrecy, the names of the two hacked counties. Democrats and Republicans demanded the FBI make the counties public.

"Consumers, voters, individuals, are accustomed that when their credit card information is breached, or when their social media is breached, they are notified in a timely manner," said Orlando Rep. Stephanie Murphy.

Republicans stood with their Democratic colleagues.

"The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have not been sufficiently forthcoming with the American people," said Rep. Matt Gaetz, of Pensacola.

They also said the Pentagon's cyber defense systems were not activated in the runup to the 2016 election because the FBI didn't tell them. 

The FBI said it told state officials, though then-Gov. Scott said the warning never made it to him.

"Listen, they are attacking us," said Crist. "We are talking about our democratic process, how we elect our elected leaders. That was tampered with by a foreign national."

The FBI said it couldn't disclose the county names because the counties are considered victims, and they want future counties to feel comfortable coming forward. In this case, the two hacked counties reported the hacks to the FBI.

"That rationale is ludicrous," said Gaetz. "The victims in these cases are not government office-holders. The victims are voters."

All but one of Florida's 67 counties have apparently upgraded their defenses to stop this from happening again. Palm Beach County has not, with members of Congress demanding to find out why.

Crist is also demanding a second briefing.