The FBI says it has found breaches in IL and Arizona’s voter registration databases and is investigating whether other states have been targeted ahead of the pivotal 8 November US Presidential election.
Advertisement
In Illinois, hackers were able to download personal data of up to 200,000 state voters, causing officials to shut down the voter registration system for 10 days in late July; the Arizona attacks are described as being more “limited” in that hackers only managed to inject malicious software onto the state’s voter registration system but did not manage to steal any data. While in Arizona, state officials concluded hackers had been unsuccessful in breaching the system.
The reports indicate that approximately 200,000 records were taken in the IL breach but that the hackers failed in their attempt to take data from Arizona.
The Arizona incident is the latest indication of Russian interest in US elections and party operations, and follows the discovery of a high-profile penetration into Democratic National Committee computers.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: There’s late word tonight that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning state election officials to pay more attention to the security of their voting systems in response to recent hacking attacks that are just now coming to light.
However, the authorities have attributed the attacks to Russian spy agencies, NBC News quoted USA intelligence officials as saying.
According to Matthew Roberts, Director of Communications for the Arizona Secretary of State, in late May, Arizona officials took the statewide voting registration system offline after the Federal Bureau of Investigation alerted the Arizona Department of Administration that there was a credible cyber threat to the voter registration system.
Multiple former officials and security researchers said the cyberattacks on Arizona’s and Illinois’ voter databases could be part of a suspected Russian attempt to meddle in the USA election, a campaign that has already included successful intrusions at major Democratic Party organizations and the selective leaking of documents embarrassing to Democrats. According to The Washington Post, the hackers – believed to be Russian – only accessed one county official’s login information there. Experts fear that foreign governments might target these databases. The information in voter registration data, combined with information taken in the breach of the Democratic Party, and in breaches of other political organizations may be enough to form the baseline data for a sophisticated attack on the election itself. I’m more concerned about the information being altered, modified or deleted.
Hacking state election offices could offer new tools for affecting the outcome of the vote. “Attempts should not be made to touch or ping the IP addresses directly”.
Advertisement
The incidents prompted Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to hold a conference call with state election officials earlier this month.
