The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has found evidence two U.S. state election databases were breached recently by people believed to be foreign hackers, prompting the law enforcement agency to urge state election officials to enhance their computer security systems.

The FBI’s Cyber Division issued a confidential advisory on August 18, but it did not identify the two states that were targeted.Yahoo News, which first reported the breaches on Monday, quoted sources who said voter registration systems in Arizona and Illinois were penetrated.

The more serious intrusion reportedly occurred in Illinois, where a state election board official said the voter registration system was shut down for 10 days last month after hackers stole personal information on approximately 200,000 voters.[xyz-ihs snippet=”adsense-body-ad”]The Arizona attack involved the introduction of malicious software into the voter registration system. An Arizona official said no voter data was removed.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson held a conference call with state election officials on August 15 to address computer security concerns. He offered to his agency’s assistance to bolster the security of their computer systems.

U.S. intelligence officials are becoming increasingly concerned that foreign hackers supported primarily by Russia may try to disrupt the U.S. presidential election in November.

The officials have said recent cyber attacks at the Democratic National Committee and elsewhere within the Democratic Party were probably conducted by people inside the Russian government.Russia has denied any involvement in the cyber attacks.

Source: VOA[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adversal-468×60″]

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