An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment further.
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A high-profile data breach of the Democratic National Committee last month stoked fears that hackers may be trying to interfere with the US presidential election.
The hack of the DNC resulted in WikiLeaks publishing embarrassing emails that showed to DNC officials plotting against Democratic presidential candidate Sen.
When asked if our election system being tampered with was a possibility, the tech security guru agreed some of these fears are founded.
Citing mounting evidence of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has asked the FBI to investigate Russian tampering with the upcoming election.
In recent weeks the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a flash warning of targeted activity against State Board of Election systems.
According to The New York Times, the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate Harry Reid believes that Russian Federation has set a target to falsify the results of the upcoming November 8 general election in the United States. Federal officials said the IL attack was the first successful intrusion into a state voter registration database. These hackers have tried to penetrate the Board of Election systems of two U.S. states.
The board remains confident that no voter information was altered or deleted from the database during the attack, which was first detected in mid-July and led to a two-week shutdown of the state’s online voter registration system. However, the Kremlin has denied the allegations. The intrusion in IL led to a week-long shutdown of the voter registration system.
Bean went on to say the Federal Bureau of Investigation most likely issued the warning so the public is aware that hacking of voter registration sites happen.
I’m less concerned about the attackers getting access to and downloading the information.
But of most concern, of course, are the separate computer systems that count and report actual votes. That’s where the real potential is for any sort of meddling in the election. Meanwhile, states across the nation are scrambling to ensure that their systems are secure.
However, the lawmakers also noted that there is widespread agreement the United States should take “all steps possible to prevent Russian Federation from interfering in our electoral process and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone involved in such a scheme”. According to NBC, which cites unnamed intelligence officials, hackers accessed up to 200,000 voter records. Once the voter’s status was confirmed, the ballot would be counted.
When they took the system offline to review any vulnerabilities, they discovered that a county election official’s username and password had been posted online publicly. “Attempts should not be made to touch or ping the IP addresses directly”. He also said that one of the methods used was similar to a tactic in other intrusions suspected of being carried out by the Russian government, including one this month on the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The FBI’s August 18 warning also came just days after Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson hosted a call with secretaries of state and other state election officials to talk about cybersecurity and election infrastructure.
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“As part of the ongoing effort, the secretary also announced that DHS is convening a Voting Infrastructure Cyber-security Action Campaign with experts from all levels of government and the private sector to raise awareness of cyber-security risks potentially affecting voting infrastructure and promote the security and resilience of the electoral process”, a spokesperson for DHS said as part of the announcement of the call.
