Even though hackers from the Russian government didn’t directly scan election systems in 21 US states, that doesn’t mean Moscow wasn’t looking to break in, the Department of Homeland Security said after complaints about inaccurate reporting.

On Thursday, DHS Spokesman Scott McConnell declined to discuss the specific states the department was alluding to. He said that hackers searched for vulnerabilities to exploit in other government computer systems connected to an “unspecified” number of states, in an attempt to breach election systems, AP reported.

The other networks were usually connected to to the election systems, or shared similarities, McConnell said.

Earlier in the day, Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos became the latest state official to complain about the previous statement from Homeland Security about the alleged probe of election systems.

Pablos told the DHS in a letter that his office has “determined conclusively” that they weren’t targeted, adding that DHS investigators relied on “incorrect information.”

Earlier in the week, state officials in Wisconsin and California confirmed receiving conflicting reports from the DHS about which of their computer systems may have been targeted by hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Officials in the two states said the DHS provided information they believed contradicted the notifications received previously. Both California and Wisconsin officials said they were told that Russian hackers targeted computer systems in their state that actually weren’t election-related.

DHS notified California that hackers had targeted the state’s Department of Technology, but Secretary of State Alex Padilla said that California does not use this department for its IT services.

The next day, California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced his office too was first given “wrong” information that its election systems were targeted.

The DHS later “confirmed that Russian scanning activity had actually occurred on the California Department of Technology statewide network, not any Secretary of State website.” This had nothing to do with California Secretary of State elections infrastructure and websites, which were “were not hacked or breached by Russian cyber actors,” according to Padilla’s office.

The DHS notification “was not only a year late, it also turned out to be bad information,” the California secretary of state concluded.

In Wisconsin, the DHS said it was the state’s Department of Workforce Development that was targeted. This agency oversees job training and unemployment benefits. When asked about the latest statement from the DHS, Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney said the agency was reviewing it, and offered no further comment.

“Based on our external analysis, the WI IP address affected belongs to the WI Department of Workforce Development, not the Elections Commission,” said the cited email from Juan Figueroa, with Homeland Security’s Office of Infrastructure Protection.

There was no indication in the DHS statement, however, as to why Russia would want to hack a Wisconsin department which oversees job training and unemployment benefits.

Homeland Security stands by his initial statements about Russia targeting 21 states, however. According to the department spokesman, some of the intelligence used to make that determination cannot be shared with the public.

Last week, the department notified 21 states that their election systems were targeted by “Russian government cyber actors.”

Officials from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin have publicly acknowledged the notification.

Obama’s DHS chief says 2016 US presidential election wasn’t hacked

The head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during last year’s presidential election has told lawmakers he saw no evidence that a cyberattack affected the voting process, after several states said this week they were misled by the DHS report.

“I know of no evidence that last year ballots were altered or votes were suppressed through a cyberattack, but last year’s experience exposed certain cyber vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure,” Jeh Johnson told an election security task force assembled by congressional Democrats Thursday.

The former DHS secretary said his department had observed “scanning and probing” of election systems, including voter registration rolls.