Electoral Commission hacked: Watchdog sorry for cyber breach amid concern over accessed data
The elections watchdog has been targeted by a cyber attack which allowed “hostile actors” to access electoral registers.
The Electoral Commission revealed it had been hacked but was “not able to know conclusively” what information was accessed.
But it said the largely paper-based process of elections meant it would be “very hard” for hackers to influence the outcome of a vote.
The incident was identified in October 2022 but the attackers had first accessed the commission’s systems in August 2021.
Electoral Commission chief executive Shaun McNally said: “The UK’s democratic process is significantly dispersed and key aspects of it remain based on paper documentation and counting.
“This means it would be very hard to use a cyber attack to influence the process. Nevertheless, the successful attack on the Electoral Commission highlights that organisations involved in elections remain a target, and need to remain vigilant to the risks to processes around our elections.”
The Electoral Commission then apologised to people whose information was accessible to the hackers.
The attackers were able to access reference copies of the electoral registers, held by the Electoral Commission for research purposes and to enable permissibility checks on political donations.
The registers held at the time of the cyber attack include the name and address of anyone in the UK who was registered to vote between 2014 and 2022, as well as the names of those registered as overseas voters.
The registers did not include the details of those registered anonymously. The commission’s email system was also accessible during the attack.
McNally said: “We regret that sufficient protections were not in place to prevent this cyber attack.
“Since identifying it we have taken significant steps, with the support of specialists, to improve the security, resilience, and reliability of our IT systems.”
He added: “We know which systems were accessible to the hostile actors, but are not able to know conclusively what files may or may not have been accessed.
“While the data contained in the electoral registers is limited, and much of it is already in the public domain, we understand the concern that may have been caused by the registers potentially being accessed and apologise to those affected.”
Press Association