DNC Voter Database Targeted by Cyberattack, Officials Say

(Bloomberg) --The Democratic National Committee’s database of voters was the target of a cyber-attack this week, according to party officials, who said they took swift action to stop the hack and notified federal authorities.

Security firm LookOut Inc. notified the DNC on Tuesday that it had found a fake login page for VoteBuilder, which is used by national and state Democratic groups as well as the party’s candidates. The site had been created in a phishing attack aimed at collecting usernames and passwords to the Democrats’ massive cache of voter information, a Democratic official said.

After learning of the fake login page, the DNC and NGP VAN, the company that runs VoteBuilder, moved to stop the attack by suspending the attacker’s account, and the party official said no intruder was able to access VoteBuilder or change or delete any information. The DNC also notified the FBI, the official said.

The thwarted attack comes as the DNC is working to strengthen its cyber defenses after being the target of hacks during the last presidential campaign. Breaches of the DNC’s network in 2015 and 2016 led to the release of embarrassing emails about the party’s primary process. Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign on the eve of the party’s convention. In July of this year, Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 members of Russia’s military intelligence agency with the attack.

President Donald Trump has dismissed as a “witch hunt” Mueller’s continuing investigation into Russian interference and whether anyone close to Trump colluded in it. At times, he has blamed the Democrats for having weak defenses against cyber-attacks compared to the Republicans.

In the past year, the DNC has hired its first chief security officer and chief technology officer and brought in contractors to fortify its systems.

“This attempt is further proof that there are constant threats as we head into midterm elections and we must remain vigilant in order to prevent future attacks,” Bob Lord, the chief security officer who was previously Yahoo’s chief information security officer, said in a statement. “While it’s clear that the actors were going after the party’s most sensitive information -- the voter file -- the DNC was able to prevent a hack by working with the cyber ecosystem to identify it and take steps to stop it.”

Lord briefed state Democratic party leaders on the incident at their meeting Wednesday in Chicago, just ahead of the DNC’s full-committee summer meeting.