Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes said she is concerned about a report Monday that Kentucky’s 2018 list of registered voters is being sold on the “dark web.”
“The revelation that this data is being peddled on the dark Web and could potentially fall into the hands of bad actors greatly concerns me and should every Kentuckian,” Grimes said in a news release.
The technology news site ZDNet reported Monday that the 2018 registered voter lists for 19 states, including Kentucky, were being sold on “a popular hacking forum.”
Kentucky’s voter registration list is pulled from the state’s voter registration system and can be purchased by political parties or candidates from the state board of elections for $2,000. The hacker also was selling it for $2,000, according to ZDNet.
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Grimes, a Democrat, said there’s no indication the state’s voter registration system — the database that houses voter information — has been compromised. ZDNet reported that the hacker contends the lists are updated every Monday, which would indicate the hacker has ongoing access to the information.
“At this time, I have no reason to believe Kentucky’s voter registration system has been compromised,” Grimes said. “This incident, however, underscores the serious need to ensure our staff are not releasing information in the public domain which weaken Kentucky’s cybersecurity efforts” and that the State Board of Elections “must move quickly to put in place new defenses under our Help America Vote Act plan.”
Grimes statement alludes to an action taken by State Board of Elections Executive Director Jared Dearing, when he alleged that Grimes’ staff has inappropriate access to the state’s voter registration system.
Grimes also said the hacking is further proof that she needs more oversight of the State Board of Elections’ staff, not less.
Dearing’s accusations have rocked the board in recent months and have been a topic of heated discussion at back-to-back meetings. The board has reaffirmed Grime’s role as the chief elections officer and chairwoman of the state board of elections, but has not gone so far as to fire Dearing, a Democrat.
Grimes has said Dearing’s accusations are politically motivated because she has made Kentucky’s election security a priority of her tenure as Secretary of State.
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