The FBI is focusing on an investigation surrounding a so-called hacking at the Center for Election Systems.
BREAKING: @FBI investigating hack of @kennesawstate server. State voter data kept by Center for Election Systems compromised. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/6g9zTbj4hL
— Aaron Diamant (@AaronDiamantWSB) March 3, 2017
Aaron Diamant, an investigative reporter for Altanta’s WSB-TV, reported that information for voters whose personal data was stored by the Center for Election Systems at Kennesaw State University may have compromised.
Sources confirm hack of @kennesawstate server happened Wednesday night. Voter data maintained there compromised. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/3cSuSSYsqh
— Aaron Diamant (@AaronDiamantWSB) March 3, 2017
The Center for Election Systems at Kennesaw State is used by the Georgia Secretary of State to maintain voting machines and promote voting in all of Georgia’s counties. After learning of the data breach the Governor’s office contacted the GBI [Georgia Bureau of Investigation] to pass along the information to the FBI to aide in this investigation.
GA Sec of State uses Center for Election Systems at @kennesawstate to facilitate elections in all GA counties, maintain voting machines.
— Aaron Diamant (@AaronDiamantWSB) March 3, 2017
We confirmed hours ago, but no response yet from @kennesawstate about server hack that compromised GA voter data, or @FBI probe. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/WKVe6kltfC
— Aaron Diamant (@AaronDiamantWSB) March 3, 2017
Seeming worried, Tony UcedaVelez, a cyber security consultant, said:
‘Obviously this is a big incident that affects a lot of people in the state of Georgia. There could be numerous types of threat motives that are in play.’
The sources that passed information to Diamant suggested the individuals responsible for the hacking likely obtained millions of voters’ records.
UcedaVelez continued:
‘Compromised information means that criminals are leveraging that information in order to make more tactical ploys for compromising identities, for compromising our financial status.’
To lessen the target on their backs, Kennesaw State released the following statement:
‘Kennesaw State officials are working with federal law enforcement officials to determine whether and to what extent a data breach may have occurred involving records maintained by the Center for Election Systems. Because this involved a pending criminal investigation Kennesaw State will have no further comment on this matter and any inquiries should be addressed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.’
The university also directed further questions to the U.S. Attorney’s office in a statement saying:
‘Because this involved a pending criminal investigation Kennesaw State will have no further comment on this matter and any inquiries should be addressed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.’
Knowing the possibilities of these types of incidences, you would think that locations holding vital personal information would have a higher security, making it harder to be hacked. It makes one a bit concerned when it could have easily been your information that was breached. Not to mention being unaware of the intended use of the information that was stolen.
Featured image screengrab via video.
