Some are calling it the largest data breach in the history of the United States. Eric Neff, the Los Angeles County prosecutor, said that Chinese contractors who worked for a software company based in Michigan had direct control over election data in the United States. They used an app for poll workers that were called PollChief.
Neff described the volume of information in the breach as “astounding.” He commented on the criminal case that is being tried against Eugene Yu, the CEO of Kenneth. Yu allegedly stored election worker data from Los Angeles on servers that were based in China.
The official complaint was issued by the L.A. District Attorney’s Office. It cited as evidence a message from a Konnech project manager that used the Chinese-owned messaging app. The message said, “any employee for Chinese contractors working on PollChief software had ‘superadministration’ privileges for all PollChief clients.”
Sam Faddis is a former CIA officer and he put that statement in perspective for many on social media.
“An individual with super administration access to a system can do effectively anything inside that system,” he wrote. “He or she can delete data, steal data, alter data, change programming, etc.”
This massive breach in security through the Kenneth software was discovered by “True the Vote,” an election integrity group.
Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, leaders of “True the Vote,” told a group in Phoenix in August that their team had notified the FBI. They told the invitation-only group that agents in the Bureau were alarmed by the potential national security implications.
But it wasn’t long before Engelbrecht and Phillips said that the FBI turned against them and sought out other “independent” researchers to assist them.
This move left many wondering if the decision of the FBI wasn’t driven by the need to protect the present White House administration.
