Arizona voter registration system targeted again by hackers
Arizona's voter registration system was targeted a second time last year by hackers, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.
(Public Domain Photo)
(Public Domain Photo)
PHOENIX — Arizona’s voter registration system was targeted a second time last year by hackers, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.
The agency informed 21 states this week — including Arizona — that their voter registration systems were targeted by possible Russian agents, but few of them were actually breached.
DHS has let us know that the Russian government targeted our voter registration systems in 2016. I'll receive a detailed briefing soon.
— Michele Reagan (@SecretaryReagan) September 22, 2017
Most states were unaware of the hackers’ attempts to gain access to information. It was unknown if Arizona was one of those states.
Spokesman Matt Roberts said Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan was expected to receive a detailed briefing on the incident early next month.
Other states that were targeted included Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Another group of hackers were able to work their way into Arizona’s voter database last summer.
Reagan told CNBC the hackers gained access after a worker opened an email attachment. She said she was told it appeared the email originated in Russia, but that was not certain.
Reagan said she was alerted to the hack after the Federal Bureau of Investigation found a credential — a username and login — for the state system for sale on the dark web.
“It was really frightening and scary considering we’re in charge of almost four million people’s information,” Reagan said.
Reagan declined earlier this year to give voter information to a federal commission looking into potential voting fraud in the past election because of security concerns.
“All we’re trying to do is make sure that Arizona voter data is safe,” she told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Reality Check with Darin Damme.
KTAR News’ Griselda Zetino and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Comments
11 Comments
another reason why we must show ID when voting. and why our gov should not be in the healthcare business. just think obamacare has information on millions of americans and a single payer will have every American information ready for Russia or others to hack into. I get it that irs has the info too but having it in multiple places makes it easier for others to hack into it. we all know that our gov cant do much right so securing your information.... lol I don't think the gov knows how to do that. lol
Nice try, but the ISS was launched in 1998 and has been occupied by multiple nations (17, to be exact) since November 2000. Was Obama president in 2000? No, he was not. Bill Clinton was. Roscosmos (Russia's version of NASA) became the primary people carrier once the Space Shuttle program was shut down in 2011
Do you know that right now there is a joint NASA space mission going on in a Russian space capsule launched into a orbit by Russians rocket engines Bay ... and ...GASP ... a Russian cosmonaut on board too 1?
Do you suppose that might be the source of all those "taps" ... NASA?
Bay maybe a 12 Step program of some kind could ease you of whatever affliction it is that propels you to such high levels of irrational knee jerk paranoia! ;o)