Ransomware Attacks During the 2020 Election Cycle
It is a clone of this request.
| Submitted | July 20, 2020 |
| Est. Completion | Sept. 1, 2020 |
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Communications
From: Allan Liska
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
Guidance, including guidance to state and local elections officials and Division of Elections IT staff, avoiding, detecting or mitigating ransomware attacks on elections systems during the 2020 election cycle, on best practices for state and local elections officials accessing or storing sensitive information, including voter databases, and evaluations about the threat of ransomware disrupting the elections.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Allan Liska
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following California Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 20, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From:
Dear Mr. Liska,
As I'm sure you can appreciate, the Secretary of State's office, like all public agencies, has been greatly impacted by the COVID 19 crisis. Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, specifically Government Code section 6253(c), the Secretary of State hereby extends the time within which to respond to this request by 14 days, from August 10, 2020 to August 24, 2020, to give us an opportunity to search for, collect and appropriately examine records that may be responsive to your request. We are processing your request and anticipate responding no later than August 24, but will update you if we do not believe we will be able to meet that date.
We appreciate your understanding and patience during this unprecedented time. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Constituent Affairs
Secretary of State
From: Allan Liska
Thank you for the response, I completely understand the need for delay and wish you luck.
Thanks!
allan
From: California Secretary of State - Election Division
Thank you for contacting the California Secretary of State’s office. Due to the large volume of emails received, Secretary Padilla cannot personally respond to every individual. This automated response indicates that the Secretary of State’s office has received your email. Please see contact information below for assistance with your request:
Business Entities – Corporations, LLC’s, LP’s
Inquiries regarding filings for business entities such as corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships.
corporations@sos.ca.gov<mailto:corporations@sos.ca.gov> or call (916) 657-5448, Option #2 - 1.
Business Entities – Status or Records Request
Status of a submitted filing, or a business entities records request
BEStatusInquiry@sos.ca.gov<mailto:BEStatusInquiry@sos.ca.gov> or call (916) 657-5448, Option #2 – 3, or Option #3 – 3.
Statements of Information
Statementofinformation@sos.ca.gov<mailto:Statementofinformation@sos.ca.gov> or call (916) 657-5448, Option #1.
Notary/Special Filings/UCC
Inquiries regarding notaries public, UCC, domestic partnerships, or apostilles.
Email notaries@sos.ca.gov<mailto:notaries@sos.ca.gov> or call (916) 653-3595.
Elections
Email Elections@sos.ca.gov<mailto:Elections@sos.ca.gov> or call (916) 657-2166.
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Constituent Affairs
Office of Secretary of State Alex Padilla
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From:
Dear Mr. Liska,
Thank you again for contacting the Secretary of State with your request for copies of records containing guidance provided to staff and local elections officials for "avoiding, detecting or mitigating ransomware attacks on elections systems during the 2020 election cycle, on best practices for state and local elections officials accessing or storing sensitive information, including voter databases, and evaluations about the threat of ransomware disrupting the elections."
Although we previously indicated that we anticipated providing you with a response to your requests on or before August 24, 2020, our agency continues to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and health crisis. Due to the number of potentially responsive records, and the current health and safety situation, we have not been able to collect and review all of the records that may be responsive to your request. However, we are working diligently to respond to all Agency requests and anticipate being able to respond to your request with the non-privileged and nonexempt records on a continuing basis, if necessary, commencing on or before September 1, 2020, but will update you again if we do not believe we will be able to meet that date.
Nonetheless, we do have responsive information and records available on our website at: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/election-cybersecurity/; and https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/election-cybersecurity/resources-counties/.
We appreciate your understanding and patience during this unprecedented time. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Constituent Affairs
Secretary of State