Days before Russia’s State Duma elections, hackers say they accessed the election commission’s IT systems and downloaded server configurations and internal documents

Source: iStories

The anonymous hacking group CikLeak said it had gained access to the IT infrastructure of Russia’s Central Election Commission and contractors developing Vybory 2.0, the state-run automated election system.

The hackers said they downloaded internal documents, server configurations, passwords, and employee communications. They gave the material from the breach to the investigative outlet IStories, which verified the documents’ authenticity and is preparing an investigation based on the materials into how Russia’s electoral system operates.

IStories also contacted Alexey Gusev, director of Tsifrotekh, a Rostelecom subsidiary whose infrastructure the hackers breached. Gusev was unaware of the breach.

Elections for the ninth State Duma will be held this weekend, September 18–20. In August, Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova said the Vybory system was impossible to hack. Then, just hours before reports of the breach emerged, the commission said it had analyzed vulnerabilities in Vybory, the remote electronic voting system, and the video monitoring system. Pamfilova called the service that provides polling station video monitoring and uninterrupted streaming the “weak link” in the entire system.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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Days before Russia’s State Duma elections, hackers say they accessed the election commission’s IT systems and downloaded server configurations and internal documents

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State Automated System ‘Vybory’ 2.0

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Days before Russia’s State Duma elections, hackers say they accessed the election commission’s IT systems and downloaded server configurations and internal documents

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