Johnson also took heat from Democrats, angry that former President Barack Obama did not more forcefully announce Russia's meddling in the election in the midst of the election itself.
The comments came during a hearing of DHS and Federal Bureau of Investigation cybersecurity officials before the Senate intelligence committee.
Rep. Jackie Speier on Wednesday disputed former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson's contention the Democratic National Committee declined his agency's help after its computers were hacked by Russian Federation during last year's election.
Russia's actions did not change the final election count, they said, but warned that Moscow's efforts will likely continue.
Johnson described the steps he took once he learned of the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, his fears about an attack on the election itself and his rationale for designating USA election systems, including polling places and voter registration databases, as critical infrastructure in early January, two weeks before Donald Trump's inauguration.
Johnson served as Obama's homeland security chief from December 2013 to January 2017.
"I recall very clearly that I was not pleased we were not in there helping them patch this vulnerability", Johnson told lawmakers, adding that the agency does not have the authority to go into a private company with a warrant to fix its IT problems.
He said he considered having elections systems designated as "critical infrastructure", a classification that would allow for the same cybersecurity protections available to the financial services and transportation sectors. He said he first raised the issue with states in a conference call in mid-August, after seeing "troubling reports" of scanning and probing activities around various state voter registration databases.
"We made some progress [there], but this is something where I think that a carrot over stick approach is best", Johnson said today.
"I do not believe that this country is made safer by holding this information back from the public", said Vice Chairman Mark WarnerMark WarnerLawmakers told of growing cyber threat to election systems DHS official: Russian Federation targeted election-related systems in 21 states Lawmakers zero in on election system security MORE (D-Va.), who sent a letter to the DHS this week asking that the scope of the attempts be made public.
Noting that the hacking happened "at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself", Mr. Johnson said he was moved to try to shield the nation's election system by the "unprecedented" nature of Russian interference in the last election.
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Commentary: Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) questioned key officials during a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing to further examine Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.
In July, a computer expert working for the Illinois State Board of Elections noticed that someone had broken into the state's voter registration database and had access to tens of thousands of voter records.
Johnson tells the panel that US voting systems remain vulnerable to future cyberattacks.
"I believe the Russians absolutely will continue to try to conduct influence operations in the US, which will include cyber operations", said Bill Priestap, assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division.
Last year, reports circulated that hackers had targeted the voter registration systems in the states of IL and Arizona.
State elections officials, who testified before the Senate committee, complained that DHS could have offered more information about the hacking.
Jeanette Manfra, the department's acting deputy undersecretary of cyber security, would not identify which states had been targeted, citing confidentiality agreements. Mark Warner, repeatedly expressed his exasperation.
"What worries me the most, Wolf, is the cost of the chaos of Russia's interference is that it's prevented Congress from acting on behalf of people's jobs, their health care, and their kids", Swalwell said Monday.
"I do not believe our country is made safer by holding this information back from the American public", he said. In the weeks after, intelligence officials became convinced the Russians were behind those efforts, though he said it was not until January that they were "in a position to say" that.
"What I mean is that we not only saw infiltrations, but we saw efforts to dump information into the public space for the goal of influencing the ongoing campaign", he said, referring to the disclosure of hacked emails.
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