By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois State Board of Elections’ latest update on the July hack to its voter database is surprisingly simple: The state’s local election offices were told to change their passwords and add a random-code level of security..
“After they’ve put in a password, they then have to punch in a code through a system that randomly generates codes,” election board lawyer Ken Menzel said.
The hack was traced to a weakness in the State Board of Elections website. Menzel has said repeatedly that the hack didn’t compromise voter information.
Most of the password changes are familiar to anyone who has ever had to reset their email.
Menzel says local election offices were told to add dots, dashes and exclamation points.
“Once somebody has been in your system, you have to reset all of the passwords,” Menzel said. “Since we were doing that, we upgraded the level (of password) while we were at it.”
The integrity of voter data is critical for counties to check with each other to ensure people aren’t voting twice.
