Election Database Hacked

Unknown hackers discover voters personal information through election databases

Authorities say voting records in Arizona and Illinois were illegally accessed.

AbbyM

Authorities say voting records in Arizona and Illinois were illegally accessed.

AbbyM, Staff reporter

The 10-year-old database for the Illinois Board of Elections holds records of up to 15 million people. On Tuesday, August 30th, hackers have gained access, allowing them to see voter’s birthdays, names, sex, addresses, and the last four digits of social security numbers.

According to CNN’s Ken Menzel, General Counsel for the board, “considering the age of the database, some of the records are of deceased voters or those who have moved.”

The FBI is currently looking into the situation but claim the hackers were not able to change anything that could impact the election.

In Arizona, the same situation was discovered when the Arizona Department of Administration took their system offline to check for vulnerabilities.

Instead of a hacker, Matthew Roberts, Director of Communications for the Arizona Secretary of State told CNN that the breach could have been caused by a worker who accidentally downloaded a virus which released the username and password of a county official.

Individuals are not able to view the whole database but can only see a small version of it.

Law enforcement officials say they are more worried about the access of personal information being seen and used for identity theft rather than election results being manipulated.