After assessing the situation, the District of Columbia Board of Elections(DCBOE) stated that the voter data of over 600,000 lines may have been exposed through an indirect hack.
The agency noted the breach on DataNet Systems, it’s website hosting provider, in October, as the cause and is now working to identify more details. DCBOE claims to have assigned third-party experts to assess the incident and inform the affected people.
Exposing US Voter Data
A couple of weeks after the hack on DataNet Systems, the District of Columbia Board of Elections confirmed the data leak of it’s voters’ list, containing over 600,000 lines! Initial investigation revealed this was an indirect data breach triggered by a DataNet Systems hack in early October.
Today, DCBOE learned the full voter roll MAY have been accessed in the breach of DataNet Systems’ database server. See our full statement below or on our website at https://t.co/7DeCwii3cz pic.twitter.com/zqLjef6m30
— DC Board of Elections (@Vote4DC) October 20, 2023
The agency said that hackers may have obtained access to the personal information of all registered voters, like driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, partial social security numbers, and contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses.
While DataNet Systems could not “pinpoint if or when this file may have been accessed or how many, if any, voter records were accessed,” DCBOE says it’ll reach out to all the registered voters “out of an abundance of caution”. Furthermore, the agency will engage Mandiant, a cybersecurity consulting firm, to assist with the next steps.
This aside, DCBOE continues it’s investigation with the assistance of external security experts, the FBI and the DHS.
The Culprit
RansomedVC, the threat actor behind this hack, listed DCBOE on it’s data leak site and intends to sell it’s data for an undisclosed price. The ransomware actor claims to have stolen 600,000 lines of voter data from the United States and mentions data points as above.
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