DNC reveals thwarted attempt to hack its voter data

Source: Politico | August 22, 2018 | Eric Geller and Daniel Strauss

The Democratic National Committee was the target of a new hacking attempt, this time aimed at its massive voter database.

The unknown attackers set up a fake version of a login page made to look like it belonged to the Democratic data firm NGP VAN. It was intended to trick people with access to the committee’s voter file into handing over their passwords, according to the DNC and the security firm Lookout.

“This attempt is further proof that there are constant threats as we head into midterm elections and we must remain vigilant in order to prevent future attacks,” DNC Chief Security Officer Bob Lord said in a statement. “While it’s clear that the actors were going after the party’s most sensitive information — the voter file — the DNC was able to prevent a hack by working with the cyber ecosystem to identify it and take steps to stop it.”

The fake login page for the data firm’s VoteBuilder tool was the first stage of a spear-phishing campaign. Next, hackers would have emailed Democrats with access to VoteBuilder and encouraged them to log into the fake site, at which point they would have captured their usernames and passwords.

Russian government hackers used this technique to hack Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta, according to an indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller.

“We believe that this was the beginning of a sophisticated attempt to hack into our voter file and we are treating it as such,” said a Democratic official, speaking on background to discuss an active investigation. The DNC immediately notified law enforcement.

“No bad actors were able to access VoteBuilder or change or delete any of our voter file information,” the official said.

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