Hackers Access DC Voter Records
WASHINGTON — Hackers breached the District of Columbia’s Board of Elections website on Thursday, gaining access to 600,000 “lines” of U.S. voter data, including D.C. voters reports, city officials said.
Sarah Winn Graham, the spokeswoman for the board, said a hacking group known as RansomVC claimed responsibility for the breach.
While the investigation is ongoing, the Board of Elections said it appears voter records were accessed through the web server of DataNet, the board’s website hosting provider.
“No internal DCBOE databases or servers were directly compromised,” it said.
Once the breach was discovered, the board said it called in its data security and federal government partners, including the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center to collaborate in a full-scale investigation.
As the investigation continues, the board is reminding residents of the District that some voter registration data — including voter names, addresses, voting records and party affiliation — is already public information, unless it has been made confidential in accordance with district rules and regulations.
If not, the board routinely shares this information upon request, in compliance with the law.
Heading into the weekend, the board said it is continuing to assess the full extent of the breach, identify vulnerabilities and take appropriate measures to secure voter data and systems.
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