The FBI has sent a warning to election officials after discovering that hackers had breached two state voter registration databases, Yahoo News reported on Monday.
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The FBI told Arizona officials that the threat was “credible” and “an eight on a scale of one to 10”. 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. The Illinois State Board of Elections last week detailed it in a report, calling it a “malicious cyber-attack of unknown origin”, against the database.
Ken Menzel, general counsel for the elections board, said no files of registered voters were erased or modified and that no voting history information or voter signature images were captured.
Both Arizona and IL election systems were shut down for a week after the cyber attacks and both are back online with enhanced security features. It’s believed that a worker may have inadvertently downloaded a virus which exposed the username and password.
The attack in June targeted a county election official through a phishing email, according to Brian Calkin, vice president of operations for the Center of Internet Security, which runs MS-ISAC.
The FBI bulletin says the perpetrators of the July and August attacks used IP addresses that trace to server hosting companies in England, Scotland and the Netherlands, as well as in the United States.
But of most concern, of course, are the separate computer systems that count and report actual votes. To talk about the recent hacks in Arizona and Illinois, Colbert brought on the chairman of the Illinois board of elections, Johnny Cowboy who is totally not a Russian in any way. “Two state election boards have been popped, and data has been taken”.
Earlier this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned state officials to be on the lookout for intrusions into their elections systems. But experts said that if a foreign government gains the ability to tamper with voter data, for instance by deleting registration records, such a hack could cast doubt on the legitimacy of USA elections. The emails, released by WikiLeaks days before the Democratic National Convention, prompted various DNC officials – including chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz – to step down.
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The FBI suspects the two intrusions in Arizona and IL were linked. Johnson told state officials in that conference call that federal cybersecurity experts will provide resources to protect against infiltration and that his office will provide help to make the systems more secure.
