A Russian-speaking hacker exploited a vulnerability in the cybersecurity of the U.S. agency that oversees the security standards of voting machines, an event that took place after the election, Reuters reported Friday.
Reuters reported a security firm called Recorded Future discovered a person trying to sell log-in credentials for access to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission following the November elections.
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According to the report, the Russian-speaking hacker was trying to sell more than 100 people’s log-in information to the commission that had been obtained by “exploiting a common database vulnerability.”
The firm posed as a potential buyer and was told by the hacker that the information was being offered to Middle Eastern governments for thousands of dollars. The firm then alerted law enforcement.
The vulnerability has been fixed and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now investigating, the commission told Reuters.
Russian hacking of U.S. institutions has been a top issue this week after it was reported that the Central Intelligence Agency believes Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee and other top Democratic officials in order to swing the election to President-elect Trump. That prompted Republicans to say they’ve been told in private briefings that the CIA has not said it’s been able to conclude why Russia was probing for Democratic emails, although the intelligence community does believe the activity originated in Russia.
Andrei Barysevich, director of advanced collection at Recorded Future, said it didn’t appear the hacker who got into the commission is affiliated with the Russian government.
“We don’t think he actually works for any government or is super sophisticated,” Barysevich said.
