The words “Russian hacking” were never uttered, but an official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that the 2016 presidential election played a big role in elevating the importance of cybersecurity for state and national elections.

Matthew Masterson, a U.S. senior cybersecurity advisor, spoke about hacking threats at the annual conference for the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale. He said Florida is actively trying to harden most of its systems in advance of November's elections.

“Obviously elections infrastructure is in the national conversation in part because of what happened in 2016,” he said. “Florida’s taking really important steps to help ensure the resilience of the process.”

DHS officially placed elections infrastructure on the "critical infrastructure" list about 16 months ago, meaning theTHREE of the four people killed in a horror water ride accident at Dreamworld in Queensland yesterday have been identified in what is now being described as a “family tragedy”.

Roozbeh Araghi, 38, Luke Dorsett, 35, and Kate Goodchild, 32, died after the Thunder River Rapids ride they were on apparently malfunctioned, with one of the rafts flipping on a conveyor belt, the Courier-Mail reports.

A 42-year-old woman that also died at the tragic scene is yet to be publicly identified although New Zealand media is reporting an Australian-based woman originally from Auckland, who was on holiday at the Gold Coast with her husband and children, is among the victims.

media_camera Kate Goodchild. media_camera Roozi Araghi.

media_camera Luke Dorsett.

Ms Goodchild’s partner and young daughters had to be consoled by emergency services as