American intelligence officials say hackers based in Russian Federation are to blame for two recent attempts to breach voter registration databases in a USA state.
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Russian hackers breached a state election network in Arizona, a state official said Monday night.
The FBI is investigating a series of suspected foreign hacks of state election computer systems and websites, and has warned states to be on the alert for intrusions.
The fear of a cyber-attack on the American election system seemed close to being realized Monday with a dire warning from Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI told Arizona officials that the threat was “credible” and “an eight on a scale of one to 10”. In Arizona, a known Russian hacker was able to get the username and password of a county election employee. U.S. officials said the Russian government was behind hacks of the Democratic National Party and its congressional counterpart, which the Kremlin has denied.
The FBI described the attack as taking the form of an SQL injection that allowed the hackers to steal 200,000 voter records from the IL board of elections. Officials, however, remain confident that the records were not altered or deleted.
“This is the closest we’ve come to tying a recent hack to the Russian government”, one unidentified official said, adding “there is serious concern” Moscow may be seeking to create uncertainty in the election process.
Jaeger tells KFGO-AM (http://bit.ly/2bGOkhC ) that there is no indication that the state’s election system has been compromised.
The breaches are causing concern among election officials because of the voter personal information that could have been stolen, not because of any fear that an election could be stolen, law enforcement officials say.
In Arizona hackers unsuccessfully tried to breach the voter registration system using malicious software, said reports.
The FBI suspects the two intrusions in Arizona and IL were linked. Because of these cyber-attacks, “The FBI has issued an advisory urging the states to look for specific signs that could indicate attempts at similar cyber-attacks”, Williams stated. Cox, whose office oversees elections in Utah, said the state has worked for years to ensure “election results are protected from any hackers, foreign or domestic”.
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Much of the information in voter files is publicly accessible, and officials say attempts to access the files aren’t necessarily aimed at manipulating votes.
