According to current and former government officials, hackers committed more damage than previously thought during the 2016 presidential election.
Hackers stole “thousands of voter records that contain private information like partial Social Security numbers,” said Time Magazine.
They also altered voter data in at least one county voter database. Officials were fortunately able to correct the data before the election.
Russian hackers are responsible for most of the voter database hacking.
Russia has also been accused of stealing 90,000 voters’ records from Illinois. Almost all of the stolen records included driver’s license numbers. According to Ken Menzel, the General Counsel of the State Board of Elections, 25 percent of the records “contained the last four digits of voter’s Social Security numbers” as well.
However, the county-level voter database hacking has not been tied to a specific country, organization or person.
Several Congressional committees are currently investigating this interference in last year’s election, wanting to know if President Trump’s campaign, or any other campaign, was aware of it.
“If any campaign, Trump or otherwise, used inappropriate data the questions are, ‘How did they get it? From whom? And with what level of knowledge?” stated Michael Bahar, former top Democratic staffer on the House Intelligence Committee.
Accordingly, the House Intelligence Committee would like the digital director of the Trump campaign, Brad Parscale, to testify before it.
In February, Congressional investigators also asked the White House and law enforcement agencies to preserve all materials relating to contacts between the Trump campaign, later administration, and Russia.
Both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are investigating if and how the election hacking helped Russia to reach its ultimate goal of undermining U.S. democracy, hurting Hilary Clinton and helping Donald Trump to win the election.
On Thursday the two committees also held hearings to further discuss vulnerabilities in America’s voting systems.
“I’m deeply concerned” that the hacking may worsen in future elections, said Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Obama Administration cyber-security officials suspected that Russia might interfere in the election, leading them to prepare for voter registration manipulation on a large scale.
Nonetheless, on Thursday the president blamed the Obama Administration for not doing enough to prevent the said hacking.
“By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn’t they stop them?” tweeted Trump.
