The UK Election Commission said on Tuesday that hackers may have gained access to sensitive information about millions of British voters following a breach of the country’s voter registrations. The discovery took place almost a year ago, and the election watchdog apologized for the security breach.
The breach in question exposed reference copies of voter registrations, which are used by the commission for research and to verify the legality of political donations. Each register contains information on approximately 40 million British citizens.
While the commission is aware of the extent of the systems that were accessed by the hackers, it remains unclear which files were truly compromised.
Shaun McNally, the commission’s chief executive, pointed out that the UK’s democratic system is largely based on physical documents and paper counts, which he said would make it difficult for a cyberattack to influence future electoral processes.
The violation of electoral records was immediately reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the department responsible for data protection in the United Kingdom, three days after its discovery in October last year.
According to the supervisory body, the reason for not disclosing the attack to the public immediately was the need to stop hackers’ access, assess the full extent of the breach and collaborate with the ICO and the National Cyber Security Center, the body responsible for security. of the country, to improve the security of the systems.
In addition to voter information, hackers also gained access to the commission’s email system. Despite improvements in the security of the commission’s information technology since the attack, it remains unclear exactly what data was accessed by the attackers.
The Information Commissioner’s Office said it is continuing to investigate the breach in order to determine the extent of the compromise and identify steps needed to prevent future attacks.
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