Russian hackers found to have attacked US election agencies.

A security company has just announced that it has discovered evidence showing that the agency responsible for securing voting machines in the recent US presidential election was attacked by a Russian hacker.

Russian hackers found to have attacked US election agencies.

On December 16th, security firm Recorded Future announced that it had discovered login credentials for computers belonging to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) being sold on the internet black market. According to Recorded Future, their analysis identified the hacker responsible for this leak as Russian.

"The leak appears to involve more than 100 login credentials, including some for top-level administrator accounts. These administrator accounts are at risk of being exploited to access sensitive information, as well as to secretly alter or install malware on the EAC site," said Andrei Barysevich, head of Recorded Future.

This information was released amid growing concerns that the Russian government used hackers to influence the November US presidential election to ensure victory for Republican candidate Donald Trump. The Washington Post quoted a senior, unnamed US official as saying last week that "Russia's goal here was to give one candidate an advantage over another, in order to help Trump win."

According to the report, Recorded Future experts posed as potential clients, contacting a Russian-speaking individual who was selling EAC information. The hacker boasted about gaining access to the agency's system through an unpatched vulnerability. This individual also revealed a plan to sell the stolen data to a Middle Eastern government.

It is still unclear when the incident occurred. Recorded Future said it has handed over its findings to federal law enforcement officials.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the EAC have not yet commented on the matter.

According to VNN