The DuPage County Election Commission Web site was hacked into on Thurs., Oct. 26, with the offender leaving anti-gay and racist statements among the criteria for registering.
On the Voter Information page of the government Web site, a hacker changed the Who Can Register section to read, 'You may not be a homosexual' among a list of other qualifications to register to vote, such as age and U.S. citizenship. Michael Funtera, a Roosevelt University employee who discovered the statement that morning when registering to vote, then brought it to the attention of other colleagues before calling the suburban election commission to inform them of the reference.
According to DuPage County Election Commission executive director Bob Saar, the perpetrator was able to hack into the site a second time, this time putting criteria with racist undertones that told voters they could not register if 'their grandfather hadn't voted.'
'Obviously we're in full investigatory mode here,' Saar told Windy City Times. 'It's troubling to have this happen to us.'
'It's pretty disgusting to what extent people are willing to go to be disruptive,' Saar added.
The Web site was taken down and corrected. Although it is now up and running, the site is frozen until a full investigation has been completed in order to avoid further attacks. That means even employees will not be able to make updates to the site to further inform voters as Election Day draws closer.
The hack was limited to a subsection of the site that has static information, and didn't impact any databases, such as voter information, personal info or the voting systems. Those three components are separate and safe from hackers. The hacker was successful only in severely disrupting the commission a mere two weeks before Election Day.
The election commission, Saar added, is following the facts, and will 'prosecute to the fullest extent of the law' for tampering with a government site and purposely angering and attempting to misinform voters.
'It's meant to disrupt less than two weeks from the election,' Saar said. 'It's meant to misinform voters. It's also meant to incite and anger people.'
The agency is currently speaking with attorneys, and has already met with the DuPage State's Attorney's Office. It is also working with law enforcement agencies at every level and collaborating with the county's IT department to pinpoint exactly what went wrong.
Funtera's colleague at Roosevelt University, Brian Walker, spoke with Saar after learning what had occurred to make sure the agency was pursuing all leads.
'In this day and age, to have something like that happen is very disturbing,' Walker said. 'It's a disgrace to have this on a government Web site.'