Full Article | Axios ArticleAfter saying on Wednesday that it had experienced an attempted hack into its voter database, the Democratic National Committee backtracked late Wednesday night, calling the actions a "test."
The DNC said in a statement that it now believes a phishing attempt that was part of an unauthorized test on its VoteBuilder system was performed by a third-party.
Earlier, the DNC said it feared it was experiencing an attempted hack on its nationwide voter database. It first appeared as if unknown actors had set up a fake login page to collect usernames and passwords, a party official told ABC News.
Democrats had contacted law enforcement after being notified of the page's existence on Tuesday by LookOut, an online security firm, and DigitalOcean, a cloud-services provider, the party official said.
No hackers had successfully broken into the party's voter database or accessed any sensitive information, the party official said earlier on Wednesday, after the DNC said it had worked with its service provider to help thwart the suspected attack.
The page used in the potential phishing attempt wasn't actually a hack, the party said it now believes.
"We, along with the partners who reported the site, now believe it was built by a third party as part of a simulated phishing test on VoteBuilder," DNC Chief Security Officer Bob Lord said in a statement. "The test, which mimicked several attributes of actual attacks on the Democratic party's voter file, was not authorized by the DNC, VoteBuilder nor any of our vendors."
DNC: "Russia! It was fucking Russia they hacked us again!"
Michigan DNC: "Actually, that was us doing a routine security test."
Good job. So this whole time it was a Michigan state branch of the Democrats doing a cybersecurity audit of the national party. This is actually what's supposed to happen during audits, but they were so quick to light their hair on fire and start sprinting in circles that what should have been a moment of pride with them proving that they've beefed up their cybersecurity instead turned into them looking like paranoid lunatics who are incapable of efficiently communicating with other branches of their establishment.
That's interesting.
Firstly: The DNC is apparently still paranoid as Hell. Paranoia leads to knee-jerk reactions and pointless mistakes. But this paranoia and fear? They're doing it to themselves. Secondly: The DNC is apparently still having major communication issues with the state-level party. This miscommunication between the state parties and the DNC were one of the major reasons they lost in 2016. This wound up being a funnier conclusion to this "Second Russian attack" than I expected it to be, and I already expected it to be ridiculous.