The Democratic National Committee’s alert Tuesday to the FBI about detecting an apparent hack attack into its voter database turned out to be a false alarm, according to a DNC official.
Bob Lord, the DNC’s chief security officer, said the supposed attack was really a security test initiated by the Michigan Democratic Party, which enlisted a group of volunteer “white hat hackers” to test the system without notifying the DNC.
“The test, which mimicked several attributes of actual attacks on the Democratic Party’s voter file, was not authorized by the DNC, VoteBuilder nor any of our vendors. The party took the necessary precautions to ensure that sensitive data critical to candidates and state parties across the country was not compromised,” he said in a statement.
The false alarm was first reported by The Washington Post.
The report Tuesday to the FBI triggered alarms that the DNC was under the same type of attack as Russia orchestrated during the 2016 presidential race.
The DNC did not immediately comment on why it took two days to announce the false alarm.
After discovering the white hat hack, DNC claimed Tuesday that it had thwarted an actual attack.
A web security firm working for the DNC discovered that hackers had created a fake login page to steal usernames and passwords in an effort to gain access to the Democratic Party’s voter file, according to DNC officials.
The alleged hack was reminiscent of the Russian scheme that in 2016 exposed that top DNC officials were conspiring to undermine Sen. Bernard Sanders’s run for the Democratic nomination for president, helping give Hillary Clinton the nomination.
The report Tuesday to the FBI tightened alarms that Russia was at it again in the 2018 midterm races.
The false report from the DNC came a day after Microsoft announced it had uncovered similar fake websites created by Kremlin spies to gain access to conservative organizations.
Mr. Lord insisted other attacks during the 2018 election cycle were real.
“There are constant attempts to hack the DNC and our Democratic infrastructure, and while we are extremely relieved that this wasn’t an attempted intrusion by a foreign adversary, this incident is further proof that we need to continue to be vigilant in light of potential attacks,” he said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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