FBI Says Hackers Penetrated State Election Systems
NYDaily
Foreign hackers penetrated two separate state election databases in recent weeks, the FBI is warning state election officials.
The FBI's Cyber Division sent a “slash” alert warning election officials nationwide to enhance their security measures ahead of this November's elections. The warning, obtained by Yahoo News, follows increased concerns about Russian meddling in U.S. elections after recent Russian-connected hacks of the Democratic Party and other politicians.
Those worries led Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to hold a conference call with state officials two weeks ago in which he offered help to make state voting systems more secure ahead of this fall's elections.
Illinois and Arizona were the states targeted. In Illinois, state officials had to shut down their voter registration database for ten days in July, according to Yahoo, after hackers downloaded the personal data of as many as 200,000 state voters. In Arizona, hackers got malicious software on the voter registration system but didn't manage to pull any data.
One of the eight IP addresses associated with the hacks has previously been linked to Russian hackers
“The FBI is requesting that states contact their Board of Elections and determine if any similar activity to their logs, both inbound and outbound, has been detected,” the alert reads. “Attempts should not be made to touch or ping the IP addresses directly.”
NewZeal
Two state election boards have been popped, and data has been taken. This certainly should be concerning to the common American voter.” – Rich Barger, chief intelligence officer for ThreatConnect, a cybersecurity firm
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned that “foreign hackers penetrated two state [later identified as Illinois and Arizona] election databases in recent weeks,” as first reported by Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News. The FBI alert “comes amid heightened concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about the possibility of cyberintrusions, potentially by Russian state-sponsored hackers, aimed at disrupting the November elections.”
The report noted:
The breach “initially occurred in late June and was discovered in July,” as reported at CNN.
Illinois election official Ken Menzel FBI agents confirmed that the breach was from foreign hackers, “although they were not identified by country” during a recent briefing. Menzel said “he was told that the bureau was looking at a ‘possible link’ to the recent highly publicized attack on the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations, which U.S. officials suspect was perpetrated by Russian government hackers.”
Glenn Beck spoke about the breach at the beginning of his Monday broadcast.
Listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/glennbeck/future-of-conservative-movement-82916
Foreign hackers penetrated two separate state election databases in recent weeks, the FBI is warning state election officials.
The FBI's Cyber Division sent a “slash” alert warning election officials nationwide to enhance their security measures ahead of this November's elections. The warning, obtained by Yahoo News, follows increased concerns about Russian meddling in U.S. elections after recent Russian-connected hacks of the Democratic Party and other politicians.
Those worries led Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to hold a conference call with state officials two weeks ago in which he offered help to make state voting systems more secure ahead of this fall's elections.
Illinois and Arizona were the states targeted. In Illinois, state officials had to shut down their voter registration database for ten days in July, according to Yahoo, after hackers downloaded the personal data of as many as 200,000 state voters. In Arizona, hackers got malicious software on the voter registration system but didn't manage to pull any data.
One of the eight IP addresses associated with the hacks has previously been linked to Russian hackers
“The FBI is requesting that states contact their Board of Elections and determine if any similar activity to their logs, both inbound and outbound, has been detected,” the alert reads. “Attempts should not be made to touch or ping the IP addresses directly.”
Two state election boards have been popped, and data has been taken. This certainly should be concerning to the common American voter.” – Rich Barger, chief intelligence officer for ThreatConnect, a cybersecurity firm
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned that “foreign hackers penetrated two state [later identified as Illinois and Arizona] election databases in recent weeks,” as first reported by Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News. The FBI alert “comes amid heightened concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about the possibility of cyberintrusions, potentially by Russian state-sponsored hackers, aimed at disrupting the November elections.”
The report noted:
“…one of the IP addresses listed in the FBI alert has surfaced before in Russian criminal underground hacker forums.”
The breach “initially occurred in late June and was discovered in July,” as reported at CNN.
Illinois election official Ken Menzel FBI agents confirmed that the breach was from foreign hackers, “although they were not identified by country” during a recent briefing. Menzel said “he was told that the bureau was looking at a ‘possible link’ to the recent highly publicized attack on the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations, which U.S. officials suspect was perpetrated by Russian government hackers.”
Glenn Beck spoke about the breach at the beginning of his Monday broadcast.
Listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/glennbeck/future-of-conservative-movement-82916
