State Treasurer: Hackers tried to steal millions of dollars from Kentucky government

State Treasurer Allison Ball revealed an attempt to steal millions of dollars from the government Friday morning.

Ball said her office dealt with a cybersecurity issue just before Christmas.

Since Treasurer Ball took office she has tightened procedures to detect hacking and fraud.

"Treasurer Ball has implemented a top to bottom approach to pinpointing fraud," said spokeswoman Lorran Ferguson. "Part of that approach is to have people and not computers keeping an eye on state government accounts. Computers would not notice these issues or have been able to verify the threats."

Hackers apparently tried to steal $5.3 million from the state. After their first attempt failed, they tried a few more times to steal varying amounts of money.

"From outside sources, very sophisticated, they looked legitimate," said Ball during an interview with our

. "I drilled my team to make sure they know we are watchdogs, we check everything, we make sure everything is correct. I'm so very proud of my staff because one of the things I made them go through a lot of was training on cybersecurity and how do you know when something is fraudulent and doesn't pass the smell test."

We will update this as we learn more.