Voters cast their ballots at ChiArts High School on March 15 in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott Olson / Getty Images</s>Washington (CNN) Hackers have breached databases for election systems in Illinois and Arizona, according to state election and law enforcement officials.

In Illinois, hackers accessed a database for the Illinois Board of Elections, compromising up to 200,000 personal voter records according to Ken Menzel, General Counsel for the board.

The FBI is investigating the hack, which initially occurred in late June and was discovered in July. It was first reported by Yahoo . Officials with the Board of Elections are "highly confident they (the hackers) weren't able to change anything, although the investigation is still going on" according to Menzel.

Investigators believe the hackers are likely based overseas, according to a law enforcement official.

The Illinois database included voters' names, addresses, sex and birthdays in addition to other information. Some of the records include either last four digits of a voter's social security number or drivers' license numbers. The database is comprised of records for 15 million individuals and is 10 years old. Not all outdated information has been purged, according to Menzel, so some of those records likely include information for deceased voters or those who have subsequently moved.

According to Matthew Roberts, director of communications for the Arizona secretary of state, in late May, Arizona officials took the statewide voting registration system offline after the FBI alerted the Arizona Department of Administration that there was a credible cyber threat to the voter registration system.

Although The Washington Post reported that Roberts attributed the database breach directly to a Russian hacker, when pressed by CNN, he said that the Arizona secretary of state's office learned of Russian involvement from internal IT and cyber security staff. "We indirectly heard that the credential and username posted online was from a known Russian hacker," Roberts said.

When they took the system offline to review any vulnerabilities, they discovered that a county election official's username and password had been posted online publicly. It's believed that a worker may have inadvertently downloaded a virus which exposed the username and password. In this instance, the username and password information posted would only give individuals access to a localized, county version of the voting registration system, and not the entire state-wide system.

Roberts says there is no evidence that any data within the system was compromised and there was no evidence of malware present in the database.

The breaches are causing concern among election officials because of the voter personal information that could have been stolen, not because of any fear that an election could be stolen, law enforcement officials say.

States have a variety of systems -- some better than others -- but the voting machines and tabulating systems are generally not connected to the Internet, which would be the vulnerability hackers would use to compromise the electoral system.

The Department of Homeland Security is unaware of any specific credible threat to the electoral systems, according to a law enforcement official.

Election databases are attractive targets to hackers because they contain personal information that can be cobbled together with other data to help criminals steal money.

DHS has offered to help states increase security of their systems, but states have rebuffed federal help and largely believe their systems are secure. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson held a conference call recently to discuss whether DHS should declare electoral systems as critical infrastructure , which triggers more involvement from the federal government. States have resisted those moves.

Asked about the intrusions while speaking at the Symantec Government Symposium in Washington, FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday he didn't want to comment on a specific case but said the bureau is always looking at ways to counteract cyberattacks.

"We take very seriously any effort by any actor -- including nation states, especially nation states that move beyond the collection of information about our country and offers the prospect of an effort to influence the conduct of affairs in our country -- whether it is an election or something else," Comey said.

Illinois officials say it's been a challenge to identify everyone whose records were compromised as they have to sort through the 109 jurisdictions that may have been affected. According to Menzel, they are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to figure out who was responsible.

Menzel says the board is not concerned about the integrity of the voting system and does not expect the breach to impact the upcoming general election.

Illinois voting machines are not connected to the internet in any way, according to Menzel. Most voters in Illinois use an optical scan ballot but some jurisdictions do have touch screen machines to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act regulations. In some large counties, such as Cook County, at the end of the voting day, early unofficial voting results are reported back and sent via cell phone signal but they have encryption protection. Arizona largely uses paper ballots and also has touch screen machines.</s>Washington (CNN) Hackers have breached databases for election systems in Illinois and Arizona, according to state election and law enforcement officials.

In Illinois, hackers accessed a database for the Illinois Board of Elections, compromising up to 200,000 personal voter records according to Ken Menzel, General Counsel for the board.

The FBI is investigating the hack, which initially occurred in late June and was discovered in July. It was first reported by Yahoo . Officials with the Board of Elections are "highly confident they (the hackers) weren't able to change anything, although the investigation is still going on" according to Menzel.

The Illinois database included voters' names, addresses, sex and birthdays in addition to other information. Some of the records include either last four digits of a voter's social security number or drivers' license numbers. The database is comprised of records for 15 million individuals and is 10 years old. Not all outdated information has been purged, according to Menzel, so some of those records likely include information for deceased voters or those who have subsequently moved.

According to Matthew Roberts, Director of Communications for the Arizona Secretary of State, in late May, Arizona officials took the statewide voting registration system offline after the FBI alerted the Arizona Department of Administration that there was a credible cyber threat to the voter registration system.

When they took the system offline to review any vulnerabilities, they discovered that a county election official's username and password had been posted online publicly. It's believed that a worker may have inadvertently downloaded a virus which exposed the username and password. In this instance, the username and password information posted would only give individuals access to a localized, county version of the voting registration system, and not the entire state-wide system.

Roberts says there is no evidence that any data within the system was compromised and there was no evidence of malware present in the database.

The breaches are causing concern among election officials because of the voter personal information that could have been stolen, not because of any fear that an election could be stolen, law enforcement officials say.

States have a variety of systems -- some better than others -- but the voting machines and tabulating systems are generally not connected to the internet, which would be the vulnerability hackers would use to compromise the electoral system.

The Department of Homeland Security is unaware of any specific credible threat to the electoral systems, according to a law enforcement official.

Election databases are attractive targets to hackers because they contain personal information that can be cobbled together with other data to help criminals steal money.

In a statement, FBI spokesperson Jillian Stickels said, "While we cannot comment on specific alerts, what I can say is that in furtherance of public-private partnerships, the FBI routinely advises private industry of various cyber threat indicators observed during the course of our investigations. This data is provided in order to help systems administrators guard against the actions of persistent cyber criminals."

Illinois officials say it's been a challenge to identify everyone whose records were compromised as they have to sort through the 109 jurisdictions that may have been affected. According to Menzel, they are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to figure out who was responsible.

Menzel says the board is not concerned about the integrity of the voting system and does not expect the breach to impact the upcoming general election.

Illinois voting machines are not connected to the internet in any way, according to Menzel. Most voters in Illinois use an optical scan ballot but some jurisdictions do have touch screen machines to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act regulations. In some large counties, such as Cook County, at the end of the voting day, early unofficial voting results are reported back and sent via cell phone signal but they have encryption protection. Arizona largely uses paper ballots and also has touch screen machines.</s>The FBI believes that the infiltration in late June of Arizona voter-registration databases may be linked to foreign hackers who stole data from an Illinois election site, Yahoo News reported on Monday.

Michael Isikoff, Yahoo's chief investigative correspondent, reported that he'd obtained an FBI warning about cyberattacks on elections databases in two states. He confirmed through a source that the states were Illinois and Arizona.

The online article received nationwide attention on Monday, even though much of the story had already been reported. Isikoff's story, based on a disturbing FBI alert about the two attacks, touched nerves that were already frayed following the bombshell leak last month of Democratic National Committee e-mails, a debacle that resulted in the resignation of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The Arizona Secretary of State's Office revealed news of the hack back in late June and early July, reporting that it was a serious attack, the FBI was investigating, and that no data had been stolen. The Illinois hack, which shut down the Illinois voter registration for nearly two weeks, was covered by the news media when it happened in mid-July. Isikoff's story reveals that hackers had penetrated and copied voter information for about 200,000 Illinois residents.

The events in Arizona and Illinois sparked so much concern that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke with state elections officials in a conference call on August 15, trying to assuage fears of a massive Election Day cyberattack and offering up federal experts who could visit election sites and make recommendations for security improvements.

Three days after the phone call, Isikoff reported, the FBI issued its bulletin. Entitled "Targeting Activity Against State Board of Election Systems," the alert stated that the FBI was investigating two computer attacks and listed eight IP addresses — unique numbers assigned to every computer and device using the internet — that were linked to the hacks. One of those IP addresses was used in both attacks.

"The FBI is requesting that states contact their Board of Elections and determine if any similar activity to their logs, both inbound and outbound, has been detected," the alert states. "Attempts should not be made to touch or ping the IP addresses directly."

One of the IP addresses "has surfaced before in Russian criminal underground hacker forums," according to an expert quoted in Isikoff's article. The hacks in Illinois and Arizona should be seen as a "wake-up call" for elections officials, Tom Hicks, the chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, told Isikoff.

The FBI won't comment on specific alerts but does acknowledge that it reveals information to "private industry" of cyber threats, says Matthew Reinsmoen, a special agent with the agency's Phoenix office.

"This data is provided in order to help systems administrators guard against the actions of persistent cyber criminals," reads a statement Reinsmoen sent to New Times on Monday. "As you may know, in July, we confirmed that the FBI's Cyber Crimes Unit did alert the state to a potential computer compromise. Due to the sensitive nature of these investigations we will not elaborate further on the matter."

Matt Roberts, spokesman for Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan, said media outlets around the world was calling to find out what was going on, but that the story was actually old news. Because the FBI won't comment, officials can't be certain Arizona is one of the two states mentioned in the alert, he said.

But a serious breach did occur, apparently tied to Russian hackers.

FBI officials notified the Arizona Department of Administration in late June of a serious threat to voter-registration records — an "eight" on a scale of one to ten as threats go, Roberts said.

Malicious software was downloaded onto a Maricopa County Elections Department computer, where it apparently recorded the keystrokes of the computer user and gleaned the user's password-protected login information. The hacker put the county employee's username and password on the internet. Not long after, the information was used to gain access to the voter information. But the county uses two levels of computer security for access to that information, and the hacker was unable to get past that second level. Roberts declined to discuss the details of that second-level security.

The FBI's revelation of a breach in June spurred the state to take its online voter-registration apparatus offline for almost a week while the system was inspected.

"We wanted to make sure that info wasn't being corrupted if there was a bug in it," Roberts explained. Users wouldn't have noticed, because all the new registrations went into a queue that was processed when the system was put back online.

The shutdown affected a page on the Secretary of State's website where Clean Elections candidates can solicit $5 contributions that allow them to collect public money to run their campaigns.

Roberts said the inspection proved the malware hadn't infected any other computers at Maricopa County Elections, and that the state's voter-registration database hadn't been violated. Reagan took prompt action in June upon hearing from the FBI, he says.

"When Secretary Reagan hears the words 'Russian hacker,' and 'credible Russian hacker' from the FBI, she's going to pay attention to that," he said.

Isikoff's story says federal officials aren't sure if the attacks came from foreign agents bent on changing U.S. elections or from criminals who want to sell voter information for a quick buck.</s>Hackers targeted voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona, and the FBI alerted Arizona officials in June that Russians were behind the assault on the election system in that state.

The bureau described the threat as "credible" and significant, "an eight on a scale of one to 10," Matt Roberts, a spokesman for Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan (R), said Monday. As a result, Reagan shut down the state's voter registration system for nearly a week.

It turned out that the hackers had not compromised the state system or even any county system. They had, however, stolen the user name and password of a single elections official in Gila County.

Roberts said FBI investigators did not specify whether the hackers were criminals or employed by the Russian government. Bureau officials on Monday declined to comment.

The Arizona incident is the latest indication of Russian interest in U.S. elections and party operations, and follows the discovery of a high-profile penetration into Democratic National Committee computers. That hack produced embarrassing emails that led to the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and sowed dissension on the eve of Hillary Clinton's nomination as the party's presidential candidate.

The Russian campaign is also sparking intense anxiety about the security of this year's elections. Earlier this month, the FBI warned state officials to be on the lookout for intrusions into their elections systems. The "flash" alert, which was first reported by Yahoo News, said investigators had detected attempts to penetrate election systems in several states and listed Internet protocol addresses and other technical fingerprints associated with the hacks.

In addition to Arizona, Illinois officials discovered an intrusion into their elections system in July. Although the hackers did not alter any data, the intrusion marks the first successful compromise of a state voter-registration database, federal officials said.

"This was a highly sophisticated attack most likely from a foreign (international) entity," said Kyle Thomas, director of voting and registration systems for the Illinois State Board of Elections, in a message that was sent to all election authorities in the state.

The Illinois hackers were able to retrieve voter records, but the number accessed was "a fairly small percentage of the total," said Ken Menzel, general counsel for the Illinois elections board.

State officials alerted the FBI, he said, and the Department of Homeland Security also was involved. The intrusion in Illinois led to a week-long shutdown of the voter registration system.

The FBI has told Illinois officials that it is looking at foreign government agencies and criminal hackers as potential culprits, Menzel said.

At least two other states are looking into possible breaches, officials said. Meanwhile, states across the nation are scrambling to ensure that their systems are secure.

Until now, countries such as Russia and China have shown little interest in voting systems in the United States. But experts said that if a foreign government gained the ability to tamper with voter data - for instance by deleting registration records - such a hack could cast doubt on the legitimacy of U.S. elections.

"I'm less concerned about the attackers getting access to and downloading the information. I'm more concerned about the information being altered, modified or deleted. That's where the real potential is for any sort of meddling in the election,"said Brian Kalkin, vice president of operations for the Center for Internet Security, which operates the MS-ISAC, a multistate information-sharing center that helps government agencies combat cyberthreats and works closely with federal law enforcement.

James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, has told Congress that manipulation or deletion of data is the next big cyberthreat - "the next push on the envelope."

Tom Hicks, chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, an agency set up by Congress after the 2000 Florida recount to maintain election integrity, said he is confident that states have sufficient safeguards in place to ward off attempts to manipulate data.

For example, if a voter's name were deleted and did not show up on the precinct list, the individual could still cast a provisional ballot, Hicks said. Once the voter's status was confirmed, the ballot would be counted.

Hicks also said the actual systems used to cast votes "are not hooked up to the Internet" and so "there's not going to be any manipulation of data." However, more than 30 states have some provisions for online voting, primarily for voters living overseas or serving in the military.

This spring, a DHS official cautioned that online voting is not yet secure.

"We believe that online voting, especially online voting in large scale, introduces great risk into the election system by threatening voters' expectations of confidentiality, accountability and security of their votes and provides an avenue for malicious actors to manipulate the voting results," said Neil Jenkins, an official in the department's Office of Cybersecurity and Communications.

Private-sector researchers are also concerned about potential meddling by Russians in the U.S. elections system. Rich Barger, chief information officer at ThreatConnect, said that several of the IP addresses listed in the FBI alert trace back to a website-hosting service called King Servers that offers Russia-based technical support. Barger also said that one of the methods used was similar to a tactic employed in other intrusions suspected of being carried out by the Russian government, including one this month on the World Anti-Doping Agency.

"The very fact that [someone] has rattled the doorknobs, the very fact that the state election commissions are in the cross hairs, gives grounds to the average American voter to wonder: Can they really trust the results?" Barger said.

Earlier this month, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson held a conference call with state elections officials, offering his assistance in protecting against cyberattacks.

Johnson said that DHS was "not aware of any specific or credible cybersecurity threats relating to the upcoming general election systems," according to a readout of the call.

It was not clear whether he was aware at the time of the FBI's investigations in Arizona and Illinois.</s>Hackers targeted voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona, and the FBI alerted Arizona officials in June that Russian hackers were behind the assault on the election system in that state.

The bureau told Arizona officials that the threat was “credible” and severe, ranking as “an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10,” said Matt Roberts, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office.

As a result, Secretary of State Michele Reagan shut down the state voter registration system for almost a week.

It turned out that the hackers did not succeed in compromising the state system or even any county system, but rather had managed to steal the user name and password for one Gila County elections official.
• August 15, 2016 Hotels in 10 states, including Colorado, and D.C. may have been hit by hackers Nonetheless, the revelation comes amid news that the FBI is investigating suspected foreign hacks of state election computer systems, and earlier this month warned states to be on the alert for intrusions.

In Illinois, officials discovered an intrusion into their state voter registration system in July.

The FBI’s Aug. 18 warning follows heightened concern over Russian hacks of Democratic Party organizations and possible meddling in the presidential election.

Although the hackers did not alter any data, the intrusion into the Illinois database marks the first succesful compromise of a state election database, federal officials said.

Until now, countries such as Russia and China have shown little interest in voting systems in the United States. But experts said that if a foreign government gains the ability to tamper with voter data, for instance by deleting registration records, such a hack could cast doubt on the legitimacy of U.S. elections.

Meanwhile, the recently discovered hacks have state officials across the country scrambling to ensure that their systems have not been compromised. At least two other states are looking into potential breaches, officials said.

“This was a highly sophisticated attack most likely from a foreign (international) entity,” said Kyle Thomas, director of voting and registration systems for the Illinois State Board of Elections, in a message that was sent to all election authorities in the state.

In July, officials in that state discovered the intrusion, in which hackers were able to retrieve voter records. The amount accessed was “a fairly small percentage of the total,” said Ken Menzel, general counsel for the Illinois elections board.

State officials alerted the FBI, he said. The Department of Homeland Security also got involved, he said. The intrusion led the state election board to shut down the voter registration system for a week.

In June, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office shut down part of its website after the FBI found a potential threat to its state voter registration system, according to the Arizona Republic.

Following those breaches, the FBI issued its “flash” alert, which listed Internet protocol addresses and other technical fingerprints associated with the hacks.

“The FBI is requesting that states contact their Board of Elections and determine if any similar activity to their logs, both inbound and outbound, has been detected,” said the FBI alert, which was first reported by Yahoo News.

The FBI declined official comment other than to note it “routinely advises private industry of various cyber threat indicators” it turns up in investigations.

The bureau has told Illinois officials that they’re looking at possible foreign government agencies as well as criminal hackers, Menzel said.

The technical details in the alert were gathered by the MS-ISAC, a multi-state information-sharing center that helps state, local and tribal government agencies combat cyber threats and that works with federal law enforcement agencies.

“I’m less concerned about the attackers getting access to and downloading the information,” said Brian Kalkin, vice president of operations for the Center for Internet Security, which operates the MS-ISAC. “I’m more concerned about the information being altered, modified or deleted. That’s where the real potential is for any sort of meddling in the election.”

And James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, has told Congress that ma­nipu­la­tion or deletion of data is the next big cyber threat–”the next push on the envelope.”

But Tom Hicks, chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, an agency set up by Congress after the 2000 Florida recount to maintain election integrity, said he is confident that states have sufficient safeguards in place to ensure efforts at ma­nipu­la­tion will be unsuccesful.

For one, he said, if a voter’s name does not show up on the list, the individual can still cast a provision ballot and once his or her status is confirmed, the ballot will be counted. Also, he said, in general the voting systems themselves “are not hooked up to the Internet” and so “there’s not going to be any ma­nipu­la­tion of data.”

Nonetheless, more than 30 states have some provisions for online voting, primarily for voters living overseas of serving in the military. An official at the Department of Homeland Security cautioned this spring that online voting is not yet secure.

“We believe that online voting, especially online voting in large scale, introduces great risk into the election system by threatening voters’ expectations of confidentiality, accountability and security of their votes and provides an avenue for malicious actors to manipulate the voting results,” Neil Jenkins, an official in the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security,

Some private-sector researchers say some of the information released by the FBI points to a potential Russian link, but they caution that their work is preliminary. Rich Barger, chief information officer at ThreatConnect, said that several of the IP addresses trace back to a website-hosting service called King Servers that offers Russia-based technical support. He also said that one of the methods used was similar to a tactic in other intrusions suspected of being carried out by the Russian government, including one this month on the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“The very fact that [someone] has rattled the doorknobs, the very fact that the state election commissions are in the cross-hairs gives grounds to the average American voter to wonder: Can they really trust the results?” said Barger.

On Aug. 15, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson held a conference call with state election officials, offering the Department of Homeland Security’s assistance in protecting against cyberattacks.

He said that DHS was “not aware of any specific or credible cybersecurity threats relating to the upcoming general election systems,” according to a readout of the call. It was not clear whether he was aware at the time of the FBI’s investigation into the Arizona and Illinois intrusions.</s>WASHINGTON -- The FBI is investigating a series of suspected foreign hacks of state election computer systems and websites, and has warned states to be on the alert for intrusions.

The Aug. 18 warning, issued after two states sustained intrusions into their systems, comes amid heightened concern over Russian hacks of Democratic party organizations and possible meddling in the presidential election.

The FBI "flash" alert, which is not intended for general public release, listed Internet Protocol addresses and other technical fingerprints associated with the hacks.

"The FBI is requesting that states contact their Board of Elections and determine if any similar activity to their logs, both inbound and outbound, has been detected," said the FBI alert, which was first reported by Yahoo News.

The warning did not name the states that were targeted.

In Arkansas, Chris Powell, spokesman for Secretary of State Mark Martin, said his office has had "no indications of this kind of activity in Arkansas" but that it is "monitoring news reports closely."

Two states have reported threats to its systems in recent months. In June, the Arizona Secretary of State's office shut down part of its website after the FBI found a potential threat to its state voter registration system, according to The Arizona Republic.

And in July, the Illinois Voter Registration System suffered a cyberintrusion in which hackers were able to retrieve a number of voter records, according to a message from the Illinois State Board of Elections.

The intrusion led the state election board to shut down the voter registration system for a week.

"This was a highly sophisticated attack most likely from a foreign [international] entity," Kyle Thomas, the Illinois board's director of voting and registration systems, said in the message.

The FBI declined to comment other than to note it "routinely advises private industry of various cyber threat indicators" it turns up in investigations.

Meanwhile, some private sector researchers say some of the information released by the FBI suggests a Russian link, though they caution their work is preliminary.

Rich Barger, chief information officer at ThreatConnect, said that several of the IP addresses trace back to a website hosting service called King Servers that offers Russia-based technical support. He also said that one of the methods used was very similar to a method used in other intrusions suspected of being carried out by the Russian government, including one this month on the World Anti-Doping Agency.

"If this is the Russians, we can start to think through worst-case scenarios as to how they might sow doubt over our electoral process at election time," Barger said.

The reported intrusions so far do not appear to have involved manipulation of data -- a key concern of U.S. intelligence officials.

But, Barger said, "the very fact that [someone] has rattled the doorknobs, the very fact that the state election commissions are in the crosshairs gives grounds to the average American voter to wonder -- can they really trust the results?"

On Aug. 15, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson held a conference call with state election officials, offering the Department of Homeland Security's assistance in protecting against cyberattacks.

He said that Homeland Security was "not aware of any specific or credible cybersecurity threats relating to the upcoming general election systems," according to a readout of the call. It was not clear if he was aware at the time of the FBI's investigation into the Arizona and Illinois intrusions.

Information for this article was contributed by Brian Fanney of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.</s>The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers penetrated two state election databases in recent weeks, prompting the bureau to warn election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems, according to federal and state law enforcement officials.

The FBI warning, contained in a “flash” alert from the FBI’s Cyber Division, a copy of which was obtained by Yahoo News, comes amid heightened concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about the possibility of cyberintrusions, potentially by Russian state-sponsored hackers, aimed at disrupting the November elections.

Those concerns prompted Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to convene a conference call with state election officials on Aug. 15, in which he offered his department’s help to make state voting systems more secure, including providing federal cyber security experts to scan for vulnerabilities, according to a “readout” of the call released by the department.

Johnson emphasized in the call that Homeland Security was not aware of “specific or credible cybersecurity threats” to the election, officials said. But three days after that call, the FBI Cyber Division issued a potentially more disturbing warning, entitled “Targeting Activity Against State Board of Election Systems.” The alert, labeled as restricted for “NEED TO KNOW recipients,” disclosed that the bureau was investigating cyberintrusions against two state election websites this summer, including one that resulted in the “exfiltration,” or theft, of voter registration data. “It was an eye opener,” one senior law enforcement official said of the bureau’s discovery of the intrusions. “We believe it’s kind of serious, and we’re investigating.”

The bulletin does not identify the states in question, but sources familiar with the document say it refers to the targeting by suspected foreign hackers of voter registration databases in Arizona and Illinois. In the Illinois case, officials were forced to shut down the state’s voter registration system for ten days in late July, after the hackers managed to download personal data on up to 200,000 state voters, Ken Menzel, the general counsel of the Illinois Board of Elections, said in an interview. The Arizona attack was more limited, involving malicious software that was introduced into its voter registration system but no successful exfiltration of data, a state official said.

The FBI bulletin listed eight separate IP addresses that were the sources of the two attacks and suggested that the attacks may have been linked, noting that one of the IP addresses was used in both intrusions. The bulletin implied that the bureau was looking for any signs that the attacks may have been attempting to target even more than the two states. “The FBI is requesting that states contact their Board of Elections and determine if any similar activity to their logs, both inbound and outbound, has been detected,” the alert reads. “Attempts should not be made to touch or ping the IP addresses directly.”

“This is a big deal,” said Rich Barger, chief intelligence officer for ThreatConnect, a cybersecurity firm, who reviewed the FBI alert at the request of Yahoo News. “Two state election boards have been popped, and data has been taken. This certainly should be concerning to the common American voter.”

Barger noted that that one of the IP addresses listed in the FBI alert has surfaced before in Russian criminal underground hacker forums. He also said the method of attack on one of the state election systems — including the types of tools used by the hackers to scan for vulnerabilities and exploit them — appear to resemble methods used in other suspected Russian state-sponsored cyberattacks, including one just this month on the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The FBI did not respond to detailed questions about the alert, saying in a statement only that such bulletins are provided “to help systems administrators guard against the actions of persistent cyber criminals.” Menzel, the Illinois election official, said that in a recent briefing, FBI agents confirmed to him that the perpetrators were believed to be foreign hackers, although they were not identified by country. He said he was told that the bureau was looking at a “possible link” to the recent highly publicized attack on the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations, which U.S. officials suspect was perpetrated by Russian government hackers. But he said agents told him they had reached no conclusions, and other experts say the hackers could also have been common cyber criminals hoping to steal personal data on state voters for fraudulent purposes, such as obtaining bogus tax refunds.

Still, the FBI warning seems likely to ramp up pressure on the Department of Homeland Security to formally designate state election systems as part of the nation’s “critical infrastructure” requiring federal protection — a key step, advocates say, in forestalling the possibility of foreign government meddling in the election. Such a formal designation, which would allow state election officials to request federal assistance to protect their voting systems, “is under consideration,” a Homeland Security spokesman told Yahoo News. Federal and state election officials say that the prospect of a full-blown cyberattack that seriously disrupts the November elections is remote, but not out of the question. About 40 states use optical-scan electronic-voting machines, allowing voters to fill out their choices on paper. The results are tabulated by computers. These are “reasonably safe” because the voting machines are backed up by paper ballots that can be checked, says Andrew W. Appel, a Princeton University computer science professor who has studied election security. But six states and parts of four others (including large swaths of Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state in this year’s race) are more vulnerable because they rely on paperless touchscreen voting, known as DREs or Direct-Recording Electronic voting machines, for which there are no paper ballot backups. “Then whatever numbers the voting computer says at the close of the polls are completely under the control of the computer program in there,” Appel wrote in a recent blog post entitled “Security Against Election Hacking.” “If the computer is hacked, then the hacker gets to decide what numbers are reported. … All DRE (paperless touchscreen) voting computers are susceptible to this kind of hacking. This is our biggest problem.” Another area of concern cited by Appel and other experts is the growing number of states that allow overseas and military voters to cast their ballots online. In his conference call this month with state election officials, Johnson urged them to guard against potential intrusions by taking basic precautionary steps, such as ensuring that electronic voting machines are not connected to the Internet while voting is taking place. The FBI bulletin addresses additional potential threats, such as the targeting of state voter registration databases comparable to the attacks in Arizona and Illinois. “This is a wake-up call for other states to look at their systems,” said Tom Hicks, chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, an agency created by Congress after the 2000 Florida recount to protect the integrity of elections and which helped distribute the FBI alert to state election officials last week. Hackers could conceivably use intrusions into voter registration databases to delete names from voter registration lists, although in most states, voters can request provisional ballots at the polls, allowing time for discrepancies to be resolved, an official of the National Association of Secretaries of State told Yahoo News. Still, according to Barger, the cybersecurity expert, such attacks can be used to create havoc and sow doubt over the election results. As a result, the FBI alert urges state officials to take additional steps to secure their systems, including conducting “vulnerability scans” of their databases. In addition, the bulletin urges officials to sharply restrict access to their databases. “Implement the principle of least privilege for database accounts,” the FBI alert reads. It adds that “any given user should have access to only the bare minimum set of resources required to perform business tasks.”</s>SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Illinois elections officials are confident no voter data were compromised this summer when a hacker was able to see information on about 200,000 registered voters.

Ken Menzel is general counsel for the Illinois State Board of Elections. He says the online voter-registration system was shut down July 13 when officials noted an unusually high amount of traffic. Security was improved.

The FBI warned state officials Monday to boost their security. State election websites in Arizona and Illinois experienced hack-related shutdowns earlier this summer.

Menzel says the Illinois system's hacker was able to get information that could include driver's license or portions of Social Security numbers. Each affected voter will be notified after a complete accounting.

He says the data accessed are not tied to vote-counting software so election results could not be altered.</s>NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI is warning state officials to boost their election security in light of evidence that hackers breached related data systems in two states.

In a confidential "flash" alert from its cyber division, first reported by Yahoo News and posted online by others, the FBI said it's investigating the pair of incidents and advised states to scan their systems for specific signs of hacking.

The FBI said Monday that it doesn't comment on specific alerts, but added that it routinely sends out advisories to private industry about signs of cyber threats that it comes across in its investigations.

FILE - This Feb. 3, 2012, file photo shows FBI headquarters in Washington. The FBI is warning state officials to boost their election security in light of evidence that hackers breached the election systems of a pair of states. The Aug. 18, 2016, warning came just days after Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson hosted a call with secretaries of state and other state elections officials to talk about cybersecurity and the election infrastructure. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

The FBI didn't name the states that were breached. State election websites in Arizona and Illinois experienced hack-related shutdowns earlier this summer. In both cases, the parts of the websites attacked involved online voter registration.

The FBI's Aug. 18 warning also came just days after Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson hosted a call with secretaries of state and other state election officials to talk about cybersecurity and election infrastructure.

In that call, Johnson said that while DHS isn't aware of any particular cyber threat against election-related computers, it's "critically important" to make sure that election systems are secure amid a rapidly changing threat landscape, according to a DHS summary of the call.

Federal officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility that hackers, particularly those working for Russia or another country, could breach U.S. elections systems and wreak havoc on the November presidential election.

Some experts, along with Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign, believe that Russia was behind the embarrassing email hack of the Democratic National Committee right before its national convention last month. The hacked emails showed an apparent lack of neutrality in the primary race between Clinton and Bernie Sanders, with some party officials disparaging Sanders.

Follow Bree Fowler at https://twitter.com/APBreeFowler. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/bree-fowler.
U.S. officials are investigating the hacking of election system databases in Illinois and Arizona. The FBI alerted all election officials nationwide about this issue earlier this month.