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Electoral Commission hack overview:
- Who: Britain’s Electoral Commission has been hacked by “hostile actors” who accessed internal emails and voter data.
- Why: Hostile actors have sought to influence elections.
- Where: The Electoral Commission hack affects voters registered in Britain.
Britain’s Electoral Commission was targeted in a cyberattack in which “hostile actors” accessed internal emails and copies of voter data, The Guardian reported on August 8.
Information accessed in the Electoral Commission hack may have involved the names and addresses of voters registered between 2014 and 2022.
The Electoral Commission hack was reportedly discovered in October 2022, but the hackers may have had access to the information as far back as August 2021.
Although the Electoral Commission notified the Information Commissioner’s Office and the National Crime Agency within 72 hours after it discovered the data breach, the public was not notified until this week.
The delay was related to the need for the commission to “remove the actors and their access to our system, assess the extent of the incident, liaise with the National Cyber Security Centre and ICO, and put additional security measures in place before we could make the incident public,” the Electoral Commision claims.
The Electoral Commission noted that much of the compromised data was already in the public domain and stressed that it was unlikely that anyone would be able to influence the outcome of U.K. elections because the electoral system is mostly paper-based.
Electoral Commission hack shows need to remain vigilant to election interference efforts, commission says
The perpetrator of the Electoral Commission hack is unknown, but some security experts suggest Russia may be to blame.
U.S. officials reportedly determined Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election in support of Donald Trump, and a British parliamentary committee said Russia interfered in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Similar allegations have been made about potential Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.
“We know which systems were accessible to the hostile actors, but are not able to know conclusively what files may or may not have been accessed,” said Electoral Commission Chief Executive Shaun McNally.
“The successful attack … highlights that organisations involved in elections remain a target, and need to remain vigilant to the risks to processes around our elections.”
Last fall, Britain reportedly put together a ministerial task force to address the threat of foreign interference in its elections. A recent national security law also imposes stiffer penalties on election interference offences.
Earlier this year, Arnold Clark notified some of its customers that they were affected by a data breach that may have exposed some of their personal information.
What do you think about the Electoral Commission hack? Join the discussion in the comments!
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