The FBI’s cyber division issued a confidential “flash” alert to state officials on August 18 saying it launched an investigation in light of evidence that hackers breached voter data systems in two states.
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Hackers were, however, able to steal the personal data of as many as 200,000 IL voters during an attack in late July that crippled the state’s voter registration system for more than one week, Yahoo! IL officials said in July that they shut down their state’s voter registration after a hack. In this case, it seems to have allowed the hackers to steal 200,000 voter records from the IL board of elections, and to cause the IL board to close registration for ten days. 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.
One of the multiple IP addresses used in the attacks featured in both, hinting that they were carried out by the same perpetrators.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation alert, one of the IP addresses was associated with both breaches.
The FBI is warning states to tighten security measures in preparation for November’s election after hackers stole voter information from one state election database and targeted another in recent weeks. The Arizona attack was less significant, introducing malware into the voter registration system but not successfully stealing any data.
The FBI declined to comment on the breaches against the state election databases mentioned in its bulletin. US officials suspect that hack was carried out by Russian government hackers.
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.
The FBI is investigating the hack, which initially occurred in late June and was discovered in July.
U.S. officials have previously expressed concerns about Russia’s involvement in the hacking of the Democratic Party organizations. “We say that the system was compromised in this context, that it’s been accessed”.
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Johnson said DHS isn’t aware of any specific cyber threat against election-related networks, but he urged officials to examine how to better secure their systems, according to a summary of the call put out by the department. The federal alert warns of possible future cyber intrusions by Russian hackers who have already gotten into the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign systems.
