The Democratic National Committee thought it had again been the victim of hacking this week. They contacted the FBI after the computer security firm Lookout Inc. alerted them to a phishing scheme. Turns out it was a false alarm. A third party "not authorized by the DNC or its vendors" set up the site to test Democrats' resiliency to phishing attacks.
Still, the DNC’s chief information security officer Bob Lord said you can never be too careful.
“There are constant attempts to hack the DNC and our Democratic infrastructure, and while we are extremely relieved that this wasn’t an attempted intrusion by a foreign adversary, this incident is further proof that we need to continue to be vigilant in the light of potential attacks,” he said.
Donald Trump Jr. mocked the committee for the mixup.
Damn, they almost finally had something to justify the BS they've been selling for 2 years... Maybe next time.?? https://t.co/fB40kJHuYx
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 23, 2018
Perhaps one can understand why the DNC is on high alert. In 2016, their database was hacked by WikiLeaks and thousands of embarrassing emails were made public, in part revealing that officials had a very pro-Hillary Clinton and anti-Bernie Sanders bias.
In a joint press conference at the White House, a group of intelligence officials noted that Russian agents were again targeting our elections ahead of the midterms, but not quite as "robust" as their interference campaign was in 2016. Now, the FBI, DHS, NSA and other intelligence agencies are taking steps to prevent Russian influence in the future, by launching investigations, providing intelligence to technology companies, and working with international partners to combat threats.