WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd August, 2018) The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has walked back its announcement about a suspected attempt to hack into its voter systems, saying the incident was actually an unauthorized test, according to a statement released by the committee's security chief Bob Lord on Thursday.
Democrats said on Tuesday that they alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the security firm Lookout Inc. uncovered an apparent phishing attack on the DNC voter database, called VoteBuilder. But on Thursday, Lord said the apparent attack was really just a security test.
"We ... now believe it [the phishing attack] was built by a third party as part of a simulated phishing test on VoteBuilder," Lord said in the statement.
He added the Democratic party has taken all necessary steps to ensure that sensitive information was not compromised. Although the DNC is relieved by the news that the hacking attempt was a false alarm, the party continues to be concerned about the constant threat of cyber intrusion, particularly from foreign governments, the statement said.
The DNC warning comes ahead of the 2018 US midterm election and amid an ongoing investigation into allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election. Russia has repeatedly denied the allegations.
US Democrats have accused Russia of hacking their networks during the 2016 presidential campaign in order to illegally obtain confidential information and sway the election in favor of then-candidate of the Republican party Donald Trump. Moscow denies the allegations of meddling, saying no evidence has been put forward to substantiate the claims.
