D.C. election board says records breached, voter data purportedly found on dark web

Washington, D.C.'s Board of Election says it is the victim of a data breach, potentially providing access to 600,000 lines of voter data.

The group RansomVC is claimed responsibility for the breach.

The board said it became aware Thursday of the breach, which was made public Friday, according to the news blog DCist.com.

The voter records were accessed through DataNet, a web server used by board, but no internal databases were directly compromised, according to the board.

Local and federal law enforcement agencies – including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security – are investigating the matter. 

It was unclear when the board website will back to running normally.

The Washington Post reports the alleged culprits posted the data for sale on its dark web site. The newspaper also found the data for sale on a dark web hacking forum, with one post including the address and personal information of several apparent D.C. voters

A board spokesperson couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the posts, DCist also reports.

Most ransomware attacks are an encryption of data, which blocks the owner's access to it. And the data is unencrypted in exchange for money, or ransom.