A USA cybersecurity monitor on Monday described another breach of a voter election system just after after a leaked Federal Bureau of Investigation report revealed two similar attacks.
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One of the officials claimed that “there is serious concern” that Moscow was trying to create uncertainty in the USA presidential election process.
The July attack used a SQL injection technique to get into the website server for the Illinois Board of Elections, and stole the personal data of 200,000, according to Ken Menzel, the general counsel of the Illinois Board of Elections.
Hackers have breached databases for voter registration systems in IL and Arizona, according to state election and law enforcement officials.
The FBI’s August 18 warning came after Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson held a conference call with various state election officials to discuss cybersecurity issues.
The FBI warning did not identify the two states targeted by cyber intruders, but Yahoo News said sources familiar with the document said it referred to Arizona and IL, whose voter registration systems were penetrated. Officials with the Board of Elections are “highly confident they (the hackers) weren’t able to change anything, although the investigation is still going on” according to Menzel. “There has been a lot of talk of voter registration databases being probed, and we’ve confirmed that people are doing phishing campaigns at local elected officials, some of that successful”. Certain methods used in the hack overlap with previous attacks linked to Russian Federation, and at least one IP address used in the hack had surfaced previously in cybercrime forums.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest says that has prompted the administration to debate whether federal officials should step in to ensure the security of the systems.
The FBI alert was first reported Monday by Yahoo News.
Later that month, Trump seemed to encourage Russian hackers to cyber attack U.S. State Department information to bring down his rival, Hillary Clinton. But Yahoo News quotes “sources familiar with the document” who said Arizona and IL were the targets.
The FBI’s alert asks that states check with their election boards to report any similar activity. The FBI is now investigating the cyber attack. It’s also possible to visit Google’s How Do I Vote page to see what options are available in a given state or jurisdiction.
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Johnson said the agency was not aware of “specific or credible cyber security threats” to the election at the time.
