Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Tuesday, August 8th, 2023. I'm Brian McCullough today.

Hackers access the UK Electoral Commission, so how worried should we be?

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The UK Electoral Commission is reporting a hack by what it is calling hostile actors, which

began in August of 2021 and wasn't identified until October 2022. The full scope of the

hack isn't conclusively known and you know I've mentioned many times the high bar I have

for sharing hacking stories with you but you know

hacking of an electoral system definitely clears that bar quoting the guardian

the electoral commission revealed it had been hacked but was quote not able to know conclusively what information had been accessed and said it apologized to people whose information was accessible to the hackers.

It said, however, that 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 attackers first access to the Commission's systems in August 2021. The Commission's Chief Executive Sean 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 organizations

involved in elections remain a target and need to remain vigilant to the risks to processes

around our elections, end quote.

The attackers were able to access reference copies of the

...