The FBI warning, contained in a "flash" alert from the FBI's Cyber Division, a copy of which was obtained by Yahoo News, comes amid heightened concerns among USA intelligence officials about the possibility of cyberintrusions, potentially by Russian state-sponsored hackers, aimed at disrupting the November elections.
Three days later, the FBI's Cyber Division released a flash alert that referenced two recent attacks on state election databases.
Yahoo reported that, based on sources, IL appeared to be the state from which information on some 200,000 voters was stolen while Arizona's system was targeted with malware. The general counsel of the Illinois Board of Elections told the outlet that hackers downloaded personal data on up to 200,000 state voters, while in Arizona the infiltrators broke in but failed to steal anything.
The reports indicate that approximately 200,000 records were taken in the IL breach but that the hackers failed in their attempt to take data from Arizona.
The information was contained in an August 18 "flash" alert that was sent out to state election officials and published Monday by Yahoo News.
State officials told the Chicago Tribune they were confident no voter record had been deleted or altered.
USA officials have previously expressed concerns about Russia's involvement in the hacking of the Democratic Party organizations.
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The FBI is warning USA election officials to increase computer security measures after two state election databases were penetrated by foreign hackers.
"While the systems are separate, it might be possible, though highly labor intensive, to use the voter names and addresses to interfere with an election", said Princeton's Appel.
In its warning sent to state-level election boards, the Federal Bureau of Investigation described an attack on at least one of those two election websites as using a technique called SQL injection.
However, the authorities have attributed the attacks to Russian spy agencies, NBC News quoted U.S. intelligence officials as saying. One IP address was connected to both attacks, according to Yahoo News. The Board of Elections says it will contact anyone who was affected.
U.S. officials said the Russian government was behind hacks of the Democratic National Party and its congressional counterpart, which the Kremlin has denied.
Those incidents led Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to host a call earlier this month with state election officials to talk about cybersecurity and election infrastructure.
The hacks, at least one of which is believed to be carried out by Russians, led both states to shut down their systems for a week. "Counting systems typically are not online, whereas the registration system is created to be online in many states", said Verified Voting's Smith. They have also started a campaign that will "raise awareness about specific risks". The state's system isn't linked to city or county government elections departments.
