FBI Says Foreign Hackers Got Into Election Computers

from the well,-that's-just-great dept

We've written probably hundreds of stories on just what a dumb idea electronic voting systems are, highlighting how poorly implemented they are, and how easily hacked. And, yet, despite lots of security experts sounding the alarm over and over again, you still get election officials ridiculously declaring that their own systems are somehow hack proof.

And now, along comes the FBI to alert people that it's discovered at least two state election computer systems have been hacked already, and both by foreign entities.

The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers penetrated two state election databases in recent weeks, prompting the bureau to warn election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems, according to federal and state law enforcement officials.

The report apparently noted that Arizona and Illinois were the two states whose systems were exploited -- with both attacks coming from the same IP addresses. From the report, it does not look as if the hacks were specifically about modifying vote totals, but rather accessing voter registration data -- but that's still a pretty big concern.

In response, the Department of Homeland Security has apparently reached out to state election officials offering "help" in better securing their election systems. Doesn't it seem a bit late for them to start securing their systems now? And, of course, it's not like DHS is somehow a great at stopping hackers either. It wasn't so long ago that a 16-year-old kid using the online handle "penis" was able to hack DHS's computer systems.

Maybe, just maybe, people in charge of elections in America should have considered some of this, I dunno, two decades ago when people first raised the issues about vulnerabilities in election systems.

Filed Under: cybersecurity, dhs, e-voting, fbi, foreign hackers, hackers, homeland security, security