Hackers may have access to the information of millions of British voters, says the electoral commission

LONDON (AP) — Hackers could have information on tens of millions of British voters after gaining access to electoral records, Britain’s election watchdog said Tuesday, nearly a year after the leak was discovered.

The Electoral Commission apologized for the breach, but said much of the information was already in the public domain and the names and addresses of people who registered to vote between 2014 and 2022 were unlikely to be used by “hostile actors.” ” to influence election results.

“The UK democratic process is significantly scattered and its key aspects continue to be based on documentation and paper counting,” said Shaun McNally, chief executive of the commission. “This means that it would be very difficult to use a cyber attack to influence the process.”

The commission reported the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office within three days of its discovery last October.

The Guardian quoted the commission as saying it did not immediately report the attack to the public because it needed to disrupt access hackers had, determine the extent of the breach, and work with the ICO and the National Center for Cyber ​​Security to improve security.

The hack exposed reference copies of electoral records used by the commission to investigate and check whether political donations are allowed. Each record contains the information of about 40 million people.

The hackers also gained access to the commission’s email system.

While the commission knows which systems hackers can see, it doesn’t know which files were accessed, McNally said. The security of the commission’s information technology has improved since the attack, he added.

The Information Commissioner’s Office said it is still investigating the attack.