Russians hit 39 states in ’16 hackfest

RUSSIAN HACKING efforts during the 2016 election reportedly affected voter databases and other systems in 39 states, prompting Obama administration officials to directly complain to Moscow on an emergency communications line.

According to Bloomberg News, Moscow-directed hackers were able to break into software used by poll workers on Election Day and in at least one state, Illinois, attempted to delete or change voter data.

In another state, sources told the news outlet, hackers broke into campaign finance databases.

Obama White House officials believed that Moscow hackers were trying to delete voter regulation data or put measures in place that would delay the pace of vote tallying, the report said.

The efforts were so frequent and so persistent, Bloomberg reported, that top Obama administration officials contacted Russian officials in October, using the so-called “red phone,” a secure, immediate direct messaging line to the Kremlin, to complain and demand they stop the efforts.

Officials also warned Vladimir Putin’s (photo) regime that the U.S. would respond to the efforts.

The new details emerged just a week after The Intercept, citing leaked intelligence documents, revealed that Russian hackers launched a broad cyberattack against the U.S. election process far bigger than previously known, targeting a voting software company and sending phishing emails to local officials ahead of the presidential election.

According to classified National Security Agency documents a whistleblower leaked to the website, operatives from GRU — Moscow’s main military intelligence agency — targeted employees at an electronic voting vendor in August. At least one employee was likely compromised, the report said.

Hackers then used info from the company to target more than 100 local government email addresses by pretending to be from Florida-based VR Systems, the NSA report allegedly said.

VR Systems’ website lists California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia as states where its EViD software is used for election-management tasks such as checking whether a voter is registered.

The company does not sell the machines used for actual voting, and the documents do not say that any vote counting system was hacked.