The Democratic National Committee (DNC) appeared to walk back claims it had detected sophisticated attempts at hacking into its voter database, announcing on Thursday that it was just a subcontractor’s unauthorized security test.
The DNC called the FBI on Wednesday claiming an unidentified person or service had created a login page to trick DNC staffers into providing their usernames and passwords, CNN first reported.
Such technology breaches are known as phishing attacks, and are relatively common. However, the DNC had to walk back its hacking claims after further investigation revealed it was simply an unauthorized test by a third party, and not a real attempt to obtain voter data, according to Axios.
“We, along with the partners who reported the site, now believe it was built by a third party as part of a simulated phishing test on VoteBuilder,” Bob Lord, chief security officer for the DNC, told NBC. “The test, which mimicked several attributes of actual attacks on the Democratic party’s voter file, was not authorized by the DNC, VoteBuilder nor any of our vendors.”
Reports later confirmed that the third party was a test by the Michigan Democratic Party, technically a separate entity from the DNC, to mimic actual phishing attacks. (RELATED: Still No Answers From DNC One Week After Pledging To Review Ellison Allegations)
With just months left before the important midterm elections in November, the threat of real hacks and foreign entity intervention is in U.S. elections is valid, especially for political parties and voter data.
The DNC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) were victims of historically effective cyberattacks in the 2016 election, and on Tuesday Microsoft announced it had evidence to support that Russian intelligence had tried to trick conservative think tanks, the U.S. Senate and Microsoft itself.
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