Foreign hackers, with suspected Russian ties, have pilfered user voter records from two state election systems, from Arizona and Illinois, Yahoo News reported today.
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According to Illinois State Board of Election officials, the hack in Illinois started in July and may have compromised the last four digits of Social Security numbers, names, birthdays, addresses and drivers’ license numbers of almost 200,000 voters. Officials also identified a compromised login credential that was used to access a computer connected to the state’s voter registration system, according to Arizona Central.
– IL elections officials are confident no voter data were compromised this summer when a hacker was able to see information on about 200,000 registered voters. While federal investigators have not said specifically that the same groups were involved in both attacks, an alert sent to state election officials lists common IP addresses that were used in both attacks.
In the alert addressed to “need to know” recipients, the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls on the other states to notify the agency if any attacks are suspected.
The FBI confirmed to Fox News on Monday it issued a “flash” alert on August 18, urging states to contact their Board of Elections if they suspect a breach. Rich Barger, chief information officer at ThreatConnect, said that several of the IP addresses trace back to a website hosting service called King Servers that offers Russia-based technical support.
Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke with state election officials on ways to better safeguard their voting systems from hackers.
The hackers then found an SQL injection vulnerability – a common attack point in websites – and exploited it to steal the data.
This is just the latest in a series of high-profile breaches believed to be carried out by hackers tied to Russian intelligence. Using widely known security tools, unknown hackers managed to exfiltrate the details of 200,000 voters in IL. State election officials realized in July the system had been breached. Yahoo News reported the other hacking victim was the state of Arizona, which is holding a crucial primary election Tuesday. The FBI has alerted the election officials across the country to take new steps to ensure security of their computer systems.
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The FBI has become increasingly anxious hackers may attempt to disrupt the U.S. presidential election. “There has been a discussion to designate certain voting systems on the state and local levels as pieces of critical infrastructure.more of a role in assisting the administrators”.
