COLUMBIA, S.C. – The FBI says Russian hackers got into the voter registration system in Illinois and tried to access Arizona’s, so the agency is warning states to boost election security.
The hackers got the personal information of as many as 200,000 people in Illinois. In Arizona, a known Russian hacker was able to get the username and password of a county election employee. He posted that username and password online and someone used it to try to get into Arizona’s voter registration file but was unsuccessful.
In South Carolina, State Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire says, “We employ all of the latest, most effective IT security measures to not only protect voters’ personally identifiable information and the statewide voter registration system, and the other information in the voter registration system and how we use that to conduct elections, but also the statewide voting system as well.”
He says he wouldn’t reveal specific security information for obvious reasons, but says the agency has its own in-house computer security experts and also uses outside vendors and the state’s computer security agency.
What’s important to note is that the voter registration system is separate from the voting system. The voter registration system is online, which makes it possible to be hacked. That system contains the personal information of voters, along with their voting precincts. The voting system, the machines you actually vote on, is separate.
Whitmire says, “Voting machines aren’t connected to the internet. They’re not connected to a network. They’re stand-alone devices, so I think that’s important for people to know.”
He says a hacker would likely want to get voter registration information to steal personal information, but a hacker who got into a voter registration file could also change or delete information, which would disrupt elections.
White House national security advisors are discussing whether state election systems should be designated as “critical infrastructure.” White House spokesman Josh Earnest says that designation would make federal money and expertise available to states to help them improve security.
