Ohio Election Day cyber attack attempt traced Russian-Owned Company

Ohio detected and neutralized a cyber attack against its election systems earlier this month, it was traced to a Russian-owned company.

Ohio officials thwarted a cyber attack against its election infrastructure earlier this month, the state’s elections chief announced.

According to the Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the cyber attack was “relatively unsophisticated” and it took place on Election Day, on November 5. The attack was apparently originated in Panama, but experts traced it to a Russian-owned company.

“Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Tuesday that the so-called SQL injection attack was detected by the state’s internal systems. The attack was attempting to insert malicious code into his office’s website.” reported The Columbus Dispatch.

“The attempted hack originated in Panama but was traced to a Russian-owned company, LaRose said, although he called the effort “relatively unsophisticated.”

“Some of these unsophisticated attacks are ways that they probe for vulnerabilities. They are poking around for soft spots,” LaRose said

LaRose explained that the attackers were probing for vulnerabilities in his office’s website.

Although the attack aimed at disrupting and undermining the credibility of the elections, according to LaRose it cannot affect Ohio’s election results because voting systems are not exposed online

LaRose added that the attack was spotted by the Ohio intrusion system “Albert.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Ohio Election Day, hacking)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.