Democratic party says attempt to hack voter database has been made

Attempted cyber attack comes just three months before midterm elections

It is to guard against a future skills shortage amid concern over damage caused by hackers or terrorists (Getty)

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has thwarted an attempted hack of on its massive voter database less than three months before crucial midterm elections.

No information has been put at risk, accord to a party official. A cloud service provider and a security research firm notified party officials of the attempted breach, after which the FBI were told about the failed third party attack.

The voter database holds information on millions on tens of millions of voters.

Bob Lord, the DNC’s chief security officer, said in a statement: "This attempt is further proof that there are constant threats as we head into midterm elections and we must remain vigilant in order to prevent future attacks”.

The hackers had created a fake login page in order to capture usernames and passwords of party and campaign officials nationwide use, which would have given them access to the voter database, an unnamed source told CNN.

The page was designed to look like the login page to a service called Votebuilder, which hosts the database, the source said.

Mike Murray, vice president at cybersecurity firm Lookout which first spotted the fake page, said “it was very convincing” and "would have been a very effective attack."

Lookout investigated and notified the company hosting the website, which took it down within hours.

It is not the first time the DNC’s cybersecurity has been a problem.

During the 2016 election, hackers identified by the US intelligence community as Russian, publicly distributed internal communications taken in an attack.

The emails revealed divisions within the party between Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders, who had challenged her for the party’s presidential nomination.

Chairman John Podesta’s party email account was also hacked and emails were made public by the same hackers.

The hacking attempt comes less than three months away from the November midterm elections.

Mr Lord also said Donald Trump’s administration needs to do more in order to protect state electoral systems.

“These threats are serious and that's why it's critical that we all work together, but we can't do this alone. We need the (Trump) administration to take more aggressive steps to protect our voting systems. It is their responsibility to protect our democracy from these types of attacks," he said at the meeting.

While the Trump administration has set up an election fraud commission, the primary focus appears to be thwarting attempts of non-citizens from voting in elections rather than shoring up security of voting machines and systems in states.