Foreign hackers compromised the election databases of two states according to information released by the FBI.
The hacks are believed to have occurred in the few past weeks and this has solicited calls from the FBI to put up more security measures to prevent further breaches.
The FBI’s message came in the form of a flash alert and copies have been distributed to different institutions including media houses.
The whole event has only heightened the concerns held by many US intelligence officials concerning a possible hack by Russian hackers to disturb the election slated for November.
In response to the calls, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called for a conference call with election officials from each state on the 15th of August.
During the conference, the secretary pledged his assistance to the department in a bid to make the election protected from cyber attacks.
During the call, the secretary placed emphasis on the fact that Homeland Security had no idea about any looming cyber threats.
Three days after the conference call, the cyber wing of the FBI released a more dire warning which they called “Targeting Activity Against State Board of Election System.” In the warning was information that showed that two state election websites had been intruded upon.
The specific states in question were not identified in the bulletin.However, several credible sources have named Arizona and Illinois as the targets.
For Illinois, the hack was as severe as to prompt the halting of the voter registration system. The shutdown occurred over a period of 10 days towards the end of July.
In the hack of the website, the perpetrators managed to acquire over 200,000 voter details according to Ken Menzel who is the general counsel of the board of elections in illinois.
In the case of the Arizona attack, the breach was not significant. It merely invloed hacking software that was placed in the system but there was no information leaked.
In the course of the investigation, the FBI came across 8 IP addresses which appeared to have been the sources of the attacks.
It was also noted that one of the addresses was used against both states. At the moment, the Bureau is looking for signs of attack in other states,
Officials are trying to see if this attack has any connection with last DNC breach were emails of the political organisation were leaked.
As for the source of the attack, Russia government sponsored hackers are suggested although there is no conclusive evidence to back this allegation.
