Arizona PBS: Adrian Fontes on hacking of website, cybersecurity measures

PBS sat down with Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to discuss the recent suspected state-sponsored attack on the Secretary of State’s website.

On June 23, 2025, Secretary Fontes’ office detected an infiltration of an older access system, and while they were able to limit the hack from going further, it led to the defacing of some pages on the website.

“A package of malicious software was placed in, and we detected it, we sequestered it,” Secretary Fontes said. “But it worked its way through to defacing the candidate page that shows results.”

The candidate portal has now been modified to block future attempts. Secretary Fontes also emphasized other aspects of the website were not affected, such as the statewide voter registration database, the confidentiality program to protect victims of domestic violence and the E-Qual system, where candidates can collect signatures and receive seed money to qualify for public campaign finance.

“Nowhere where there was significant amounts of personal identification information was attacked,” Secretary Fontes said.

Watch the full interview on Arizona PBS.