THE NAIJA INFORMANT

A cryptocurrency (or “crypto”) is a digital currency that can be used to buy goods and services, but uses an online ledger with strong cryptography to secure online transactions. Much of the interest in these unregulated currencies is to trade for profit, with speculators at times driving prices skyward. The most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has had volatile price moves this year, reaching nearly $65,000 in April before losing nearly half its value in May. In recent weeks, the price of bitcoin was back in the $50,000 range (you can contact one of our merchants to find out the current rates via whatsapp 👉CLICK HERE TO Send A MESSAGE

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Here are three things to ask about cryptocurrency, and what to watch out for.

1. What is cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrency is a form of payment that can be exchanged online for goods and services. Many companies have issued their own currencies, often called tokens, and these can be traded specifically for the good or service that the company provides. Think of them as you would arcade tokens or casino chips. You’ll need to exchange real currency for the cryptocurrency to access the good or service. Cryptocurrencies work using a technology called blockchain. Blockchain is a decentralized technology spread across many computers that manages and records transactions . Part of the appeal of this technology is its security.

2. How many cryptocurrencies are there? What are they worth? More than 10,000 different cryptocurrencies are traded publicly, according to CoinMarketCap.com, a market research website. And cryptocurrencies continue to proliferate, raising money through initial coin offerings, or ICOs. The total value of all cryptocurrencies on Aug. 18, 2021, was more than $1.9 trillion — down from April high of $2.2 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. The total value of all bitcoins, the most popular digital currency, was pegged at about $849 billion, regaining some ground from recent price lows. Still, the market value of bitcoin is down from April high of $1.2 trillion.

Cryptocurrencies appeal to their supporters for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the most popular: Supporters see cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as the currency of the future and are racing to buy them now, presumably before they become more valuable Some supporters like the fact that cryptocurrency removes central banks from managing the money supply, since over time these banks tend to reduce the value of money via inflation Other supporters like the technology behind cryptocurrencies, the blockchain, because it’s a decentralized processing and recording system and can be more secure than traditional payment systems Some speculators like cryptocurrencies because they’re going up in value and have no interest in the currencies’ long-term acceptance as a way to move money

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With 63 million internet users in Nigeria, the country has been ranked number one in Africa and eight in the world in terms of internet usage.
This was contained in the second edition of digitalfacts – Nigeria, West & Central Africa; a publication produced by digitXplus.
The book stated that the following fifteen countries have the highest number of internet users in the world: China (632 million); USA (269 m); India (198m); Japan (110m); Brazil (105m); Russia (87m); Indonesia (83m); and Germany (68m). Others are: Nigeria (63m); UK (57m); France (54m); Mexico (52m); Iran (49m); Egypt (43m) and South Korea (42m).
The publication revealed that since 2011, Nigeria has maintained a steady upward trend in the number of internet users. It stated that from 35.7 million, the figure increased to 42.8 million; 51.8m; 57.7m and 63.2m internet users in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015; respectively.
Digitalfacts puts the total number of internet users worldwide at 3.2 billion as at December 2015; representing a whopping increase of 8.9% over 2.9 billion internet users recorded at the end of 2014.
Based on the regional statistics contained in the publication, Asia-Pacific had 1.6 billion internet users as at December 2015; while North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Central/Eastern Europe and Middle East/Africa boasted of 288 million; 325 million; 310 million; 238 million; and 429 million; in that order.
The book further made public that the Nigerian telecom sector, one of the largest in Africa, is driven almost completely by mobile telephony. “Rapid expansion of the wireless networks and competition has driven down voice tariffs and made basic cellular services affordable, especially for the poorer rural consumers,” digitalfacts stated.
It also acknowledged that the relatively affluent urban middle classes increasingly enjoy 3G and 4G LTE services; adding that consumers face issues pertaining to service quality and network congestion while religious extremism in the north of the country has affected infrastructure investments.

WhatsApp Video Calling is Now Available for Android – Download Beta Version Now!

WhatsApp is, no doubt, the largest end-to-end encrypted messaging network that allows over billion of its users to send messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, and calls that are secure from falling into the wrong hands.

And now it seems like WhatsApp is rolling out a much-awaited feature for the new beta versions of its Android app: Video Calling.

New beta version 2.16.318 of WhatsApp brings the ability for users to conduct video calls.

In order to activate video calls, you simply need to pull up a contact in the WhatsApp app, tap on the call icon and choose "Video Call." You can also go direct to the Calls tab to begin with the option.

The Video calls will only work if both the caller as well as the receiver have the same beta build of WhatsApp that supports the feature. If not, you will be notified with an error message that your contacts needs to update their app.

For now, the Video calling feature is limited to WhatsApp's recent beta builds, reportedAndroid Police, which first spotted the feature.

However, there is a possible trick that you can try in order to activate the feature.

Possible Trick to Activate WhatsApp Video Calling Feature

You simply need to follow these steps:
Download WhatsApp Beta for Android from APKMirror,Backup all your chats,Wipe WhatsApp data,Log in again.You can try the above trick that had helped some users activate the video calling feature, but make sure you successfully backup your chats first.

So, download the latest build for WhatsApp Android from APKMirror now and give it a try.

Reportedly, WhatsApp Video Calling feature also provides an option to mute the call. You can even switch between the front and rear camera on your phone, just like any other video calling apps. Your app's call history list now displays both video and voice calls.

With its release in a stable version for over 1 Billion users in the coming weeks, the WhatsApp Video Calling feature could effectively ruin the market for Google's video calling app Duo, which has been released just few month ago.

It has only been a few days since the launch of Apple's brand new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, but it appears that the new iPhone has already been jailbroken.

That didn't take long. Right? 

Security researcher and well-known hacker Luca Tedesco shared an image of his jailbroken smartphone on his Twitter account to show off the world that the new iPhone 7 has been jailbroken.

The image posted by Tedesco on Wednesday clearly shows an iPhone 7 running both iOS 10.0.1 as well as the Cydia app store, which allows jailbreakers to install apps and other software that Apple does not officially support.

Unfortunately, Tedesco has not publically released the exploit, nor he has provided much information about it. So, right now, it is hard to say if and when he will release the iPhone 7 jailbreak to the public.

It is also not clear whether the exploit is an untethered jailbreak.

The untethered jailbreak is a jailbreak where your device doesn't require any reboot every time it connects to an external device capable of executing commands on the device.

Eventually, there is no tool available yet that you can use to jailbreak your device, but the good news is that a jailbreak has already been developed, which suggests that it's indeed possible to jailbreak iPhone 7. 

So, early buyers looking to jailbreak their iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus and install unauthorized Cydia tweaks have to wait until firms like Pangu or someone else come up with the same exploit.

Pangu is the same Chinese jailbreak team that released the first untethered jailbreak for iOS 9.

Since it is not good news for Apple, the company would likely block the vulnerability used to develop iPhone 7 jailbreak in its next iOS update, of course.

Doing conversations with your friend on iMessage and thinking that they are safe and out of reach from anyone else other than you and your friend? No, it's not.

End-to-end encryption doesn't mean that your iMessages are secure enough to hide your trace because Apple not only stores a lot of information about your iMessages that could reveal your contacts and location, but even share that information with law enforcement via court orders.

According to a new document obtained byThe Intercept, Apple records a log of which phone numbers you typed into their iPhone for a message conversation, along with the date and time when you entered those numbers as well as your IP address, which could be used to identify your location.

Actually, every time a user type a phone number into their iPhone for a message conversation, iMessage contacts Apple servers to find out whether to route a given message over the iMessage system.

"Apple records each query in which your phone calls home to see who's in the iMessage system and who's not," The Intercept reports.

Moreover, the company is compelled to turn over this information to law enforcement with a valid court order — generally "pen registers"or "tap and trace devices" warrants that are very easy to obtain.

Pen register warrants are routinely being used to compel telephone companies to provide metadata about customers' phone calls to law enforcement.

Apple Logs Your IP Address (Location)

But it’s surprising that Apple, which has positioned itself as a staunch defender of its user privacy by refusing the federal officials toprovide encryption backdoors into its products, hands over its users' information on iMessage contacts under such warrants.

The report also points out that keeping logs of users IP address that could be used to reveal one’s actual location is contrary to Apple's 2013 claim that the company "do not store data related to customers' location."

The Intercept obtained the document, titled 'iMessage FAQ for Law Enforcement,' about Apple's iMessage logs as part of a much larger cache originating from within a state police agency, "The Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Electronic Surveillance Support Team."

The team facilitates mass data collection for law enforcement using controversial tools such as Stingrays, along with the help of conventional techniques like pen registers and tap and trace devices warrants.

Although your iMessages are end-to-end encrypted, it doesn’t mean that all Apple users are enjoying the company's so-called privacy benefit.

If you have enabled iCloud Backup on your Apple devices to keep a backup of your data, the copies of all your messages, photographs and every important data stored on your device, are encrypted on iCloud using a key controlled by Apple, and not you.

So, Apple can still read your end-to-end encrypted iMessages, if it wants.

Even if you trust the company that it won't provide your decrypted data to law enforcement (just don't forget San Bernardino case in which Apple helped the FBI with the iCloud backup of the Shooter's iPhone), anyone who breaks into your iCloud account could see your personal and confidential data.

Apple deliberately Weakens Backup Encryption

Fortunately, it is possible to store your backups locally through iTunes, though it is not such an obvious choice for an average user.

What's even worse is that a recent issue in the local password-protected iTunes backups affects the encryption strength for backups of devices on iOS 10, allowing attackers to brute-force the password for a user's local backup 2,500 faster than was possible on iOS 9.

Apple has already confirmed that the issue exists and that a fix would be included in an upcoming update.

However, in response to the latest report about iMessage logs, Apple provided the following statement:

"When law enforcement presents us with a valid subpoena or court order, we provide the requested information if it is in our possession. Because iMessage is encrypted end-to-end, we do not have access to the contents of those communications. In some cases, we are able to provide data from server logs that are generated from customers accessing certain apps on their devices. We work closely with law enforcement to help them understand what we can provide and make clear these query logs don’t contain the contents of conversations or prove that any communication actually took place."

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement still has to comment on the matter.

Today, most users surf the web unaware of the fact that websites collect their data and track their locations – and if this is not enough, then there are hackers and cyber criminals who can easily steal sensitive data from the ill-equipped.

In short, the simple truth is that you have no or very little privacy when you're online.

So, if you're worried about identity thieves, or ISPs spying on or throttling your traffic, the most efficient way to secure your privacy on the Internet is to avoid using public networks; use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) instead.

When it comes to digital security, the first thing most users probably think of is a good Antivirus for protecting their sensitive data on their systems. But, what they forget is that the data they send over the Internet needs protection, too.

That's where Virtual Private Network (VPN) services come in.

VPN allows you to access a private network securely and to share data remotely through public networks, protecting your data online – much like a firewall protects your data on your computer.

The most important thing about a VPN is that it secures your internet connection to guarantee that all of the data you are sending as well as receiving is encrypted and secured from ISPs, hackers, and prying eyes.

It's because VPN works by overlaying a private network on top of a public network, effectively encrypting all the data that passes through the networks.

Since VPNs use a combination of dedicated connections and encryption protocols to generate virtual Peer-to-Peer (P2P) connections, even if snoopers did manage to steal some of the transmitted data, they would be unable to access it.

What's more, VPN makes sure that your real identity remains anonymous on the Internet so that no one can track the origin of your Internet connection back to you.

So, if you are worried about online safety and have not thought about getting a VPN, it might be time to use one. But, the real question here is:

Which VPN Service is the best that would take care of my security and anonymity seriously?

Many companies are providing VPN services, but not all are same. Some VPN services log all your browsing activities that nullify the point of using a VPN for privacy.

The best VPNs are the ones that do not keep logs or records of your browsing history and protect your anonymity, while offering a solid balance of features, server location, connectivity protocols, and price.

I came across some reputed VPN services, but they resolved few issues, and some addressed several issues but cost too expensive.

But, then I found NordVPN, the Panama-based company that has been providing advanced VPN services since 2012.

While reviewing, I found that NordVPN offers some good features, when it comes to privacy and security, though it might not be the fastest VPN service.

First and foremost, NordVPN is for those privacy-conscious users who prefer strong online anonymity at a very affordable price.

Below I have listed some key features of NordVPN.

1. No Logging

NordVPN is a real non-logging VPN, but that is just the starting point.

The company has a "strict no-logs policy when it comes to seeing user activity online."

On logging, NordVPN clearly explained that it makes its user's traffic "invisible to governments, ISPs, third party snoopers and even NordVPN.com" itself.

2. Headquartered Outside the US and EU

NordVPN is headquartered in the Central American country of Panama, but why does this matter?

NordVPN servers are operated under the jurisdiction of Panama – a country that doesn't require Internet service providers to monitor user traffic, so the company is"empowered to deny any third-party requests."

3. Double VPN System

A unique feature that NordVPN offers is its two-stage data encryption through its DoubleVPN service.

When using this service, user's data is passed through two separate VPN servers, which encrypt the data with AES-256-CBC cipher twice over using different keys as it leaves each server.

Re-encrypting the data twice will indeed make NordVPN more secure, which would make tracking an internet user more difficult.

4. Dedicated Tor-over-VPN Servers (for Maximum Anonymity)

Tor has become increasingly popular after Edward Snowden revelations about NSA's global surveillance programs.Tor is a great anonymity tool, but it also has certain downsides, like being a constant surveillance program target.

For those looking to get another layer of security protection, NordVPN is providing Tor-over- VPN server that encrypts your traffic before entering Tor network, making it even harder to trace back to the source.

Although Tor over VPN is only User → VPN → Tor → Internet, so your actual IP address is not masked from NordVPN. Much more useful would be a User → Tor → VPN → Internetkind of service that allows users to hide their true IP address from even the VPN provider.

Also, Tor is notoriously slow, which makes Tor-Over-VPN NordVPN servers slow in performance, but it would be unfair to judge something on factors beyond its control.

You can try the DoubleVPN with Tor-over-VPN for double-encrypted, multi-hop, maximum protection of your data. Isn't that cool?

5. Strong Encryption (2048-bit SSL for OpenVPN)

To protect your traffic from eavesdropping, NordVPN supports many different VPN security protocols, including OpenVPN, SSTP, PPTP, L2TP/IPsec and IKEv2/IPsec.

NordVPN for Windows, Linux or Mac OS allow users to manually choose between these encryption methods, while NordVPN custom apps for Windows, iOS, Mac OS and Android, have OpenVPN or IKEv2/IPsec protocols set by default, both open source, offering robust 2048 bit / 3072 bit encryption.

6. Automatic Kill-Switch

Besides its VPN services, NordVPN also offers a Kill Switch feature, which is a must-have for anyone who is genuinely concerned about security.

When configured, this feature constantly monitors the traffic between your selected applications or processes and the VPN servers.

If your VPN connection is interrupted or the data is broken at any point or for any reason, Kill Switch will automatically activate and immediately cut those apps or processes.

This is great, as it ensures that no unsecured data sneaks out.

7. Performance and Support (Hundreds Of Servers WorldWide)

Currently, the company has NordVPN apps for MAC OS, iOS, Windows, and Android.

NordVPN also supports Linux, but not Windows phone.

Users can even run NordVPN on game consoles and some network devices like routers.

In terms of speed, NordVPN provides consistent performance with several numbers of servers providing a satisfying rate.

NordVPN maintains servers and IP addresses in nearly 600 worldwide locations across 51 different countries, including:

The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Austria, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Russia, Iceland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and more.

NordVPN offer servers that are customized for specific types of online access, such as high-speed servers for video streaming, Anti-DDoS servers for protection from denial of service attacks, and extra-secure servers for enhanced anonymity online.

Conclusion: NordVPN offers a solid suite of security and privacy features, with a wide choice of locations, clear logging policy, and good performance, in an easy-to-use package at a very reasonable price.

It's a smart choice and certainly should be on your shortlist. NordVPN provides different packages, from which you can choose one according to your requirement.

VPNs have now become a great tool not just for large companies, but also for individuals to improve their privacy and security online, dodge content restrictions and counter growing threat of cyber attacks.

So, if you are worried about your online safety,purchase a VPN now.

Own an Android smartphone? Beware, as just an innocuous-looking image on social media or messaging app could compromise your smartphone. Along with the dangerous Quadrooter vulnerabilities that affected 900 Million devices and other previously disclosed issues, Google has patched a previously-unknown critical bug that could let attackers deliver their hack hidden inside an innocent looking image via social media or chat apps. In fact, there is no need for a victim to click on the malicious photo because as soon as the image’s data was parsed by the phone, it would quietly allow a remote attacker to take control over the device or simply crash it. The vulnerability is similar to last year's Stagefright bug (exploit code) that allowed hackers to hijack Android devices with just a simple text message without the owners being aware of it. The Stagefright flaw affected more than 950 Million Android devices and resided in the core Android component Stagefright — a multimedia playback library used by Android to process, record and play multimedia files. However, the recent vulnerability (CVE-2016-3862) resided in the way images used by certain Android applications parsed the Exif data in an image, SentinelOne's Tim Strazzere, the researcher who uncovered the vulnerability, told Forbes. Any app using Android's Java object ExifInterface code is likely vulnerable to the issue. An Image Received...? Your Game is Over Making a victim open the image file within an affected app like Gchat or Gmail, a hacker could either cause a victim's phone to crash or remotely execute malicious code to inject malware on the phone and take control of it without victim’s knowledge. "Since the bug is triggered without much user interaction – an application only needs to load an image a specific way – triggering the bug is as simple as receiving a message or email from someone," Strazzere said. "Once that application attempts to parse the image (which was done automatically), the crash is triggered." According to Strazzere, attackers could develop a simple exploit inside an image to target a large number of vulnerable Android devices. Strazzere crafted exploits for the affected devices and found that it worked on Gchat, Gmail and most other messenger and social media apps, though he did not disclose the names of the other non-Google apps affected by the flaw. When will I expect a Fix? All versions of Google's operating system from Android 4.4.4 to 6.0.1 are vulnerable to the image-based hack, except today's update that fixed the vulnerability. The researcher even successfully tested his exploits on a handful of phones running Android 4.2 and Amazon devices and found that the devices remain unpatched, leaving a large number of users of older Android devices exposed. So, if you are not running an updated version of operating system and/or device, you probably are vulnerable to the image-based attack. Google has delivered a patch to fix the issue, but given the shaky history of handset manufacturers and carriers rolling out security patches, it is not known how long the companies will take to update vulnerable Android devices. Google rewarded Strazzere with $8,000 as part of the company's Android bug bounty program.

 You Know HTML?

- Make Blog/Forum Templates – Pick a popular blog or forum software, design some nice templates for it and sell them.

- Create MySpace Layouts – This is essentially the same task as the blog templates, but an entirely different market. You may even be able to reuse the same template for both purposes.

- Start an Online Store – Order products wholesale, or drop shipped and create your own storefront.

- Start an Affiliate Website – Don’t want to deal with the headaches of selling your own products? Refer visitors to someone else’s products and earn a commission.

- Open a Virtual Storefront – Building your own affiliate site is still too much work for you? Then don’t, open a virtual storefront hosted by someone else, using sites like Art.com and CardCommission.com.

 - Offer Paid Reviews From Your Website – Other website owners will pay you to review their website on your site or blog. Make from $10-$50 each or more by offering these reviews.

- Start a Directory – Build up a quality listing of sites on a given topic and get other sites to link to this resource. Then start selling premium listings in this directory.

As promised at the Black Hat and Def Con security and hacking conferences, Offensive Security – the creators of Swiss army knife for researchers, penetration testers, and hackers – has finally released the much awaited Kali Linux 2016.2.

Kali Linux is an open-source Debian-based Linux distribution designed to help ethical hackers and security professionals with a wide range of tools for penetration testing, forensics, hacking and reverse engineering together into a single package.

Earlier the Kali Linux distribution was known as BackTrack.

Kali Linux 2016.2 is an updated Live ISO image of the popular GNU/Linux distribution that includes the latest software versions and enhancements for those who want to deploy the operating system on new systems.

What's new?

Besides bringing the updated Live ISOs of Kali Linux, the Kali Linux team brings multiple variants of the GNU/Linux distribution with various Desktop Environments, specifically KDE, Xfce, MATE, LXDE, and Enlightenment – all available only for 64-bit platforms.

What's even more exciting is that, from Kali Linux 2016.2 onwards, the team promises to release updated Live ISO images of Kali with new software versions and the latest security patches every week.

Since Kali Linux has been the most advanced and widely used distro for penetration testing and forensics, this weekly update has come up as exciting news for those involved in various hacking and security-related projects.

It's been several months since the last update to the official Kali Linux Live ISOs, and there are a few hundred new or updated packages pushed to the Kali repositories.

This means that the packages incorporated in the previous Kali Linux ISOs need bug fixes and OS improvements, which are implemented in the most recent versions of the Linux distro.

"Since our last release several months ago, there's a few hundred new or updated packages which have been pushed to the Kali reports," the Kali Linux team'sannouncement reads. "This means that anyone downloading an ISO even 3 months old has somewhat of a long 'apt-get dist-upgrade' ahead of them."

You can download the latest Kali Linux 2016.2 ISOs from its official website now. The Kali Linux team has also promised to bring a lot of exciting announcements in the next few weeks, so keep an eye on its announcements for the latest updates.

Mr. Robot is the rare show that provides a realistic depiction of hacks and vulnerabilities that are at the forefront of cyber security. This is the reason it’s been the most popular TV show of its kind.

Throughout season 1 and season 2, we have seen that connected devices are the entry point of choice of Elliot and fsociety to breach networks and traditional security controls.

Pwn Phone On Mr. Robot Show

In this week’s episode, Elliot uses a Pwnie Express Pwn Phone, which he describes as “a dream device for pentester,” to run a custom script he has written to take over someone else’s phone.

Security pros have long know about the Pwn Phone as a powerful mobile platform for penetration testing and security assessments, so it is not surprising to see it on Mr. Robot.

The coolest part is that Pwnie Express isgiving away a Pwn Phone, just like the one used in the show.

The Pwn Phone is a mobile pentesting device that makes it incredibly easy to evaluate wired, wireless and Bluetooth networks. It is built on Kali Linux that comes pre-packaged with over 100 built-in and ‘one-click’ tools, and it can run third-party scripts.

The Pwn Pad exists for security pros who want a tablet version, and it’s also available via the Android Open Pwn Project.

The Pwn Phone is the latest in a series of connected device hacks on Mr. Robot that have included a Femtocell, a Raspberry Pi, and Bluetooth sniffers, along with the hack of an E-Corp exec’s connected home and the crucial meltdown of E-Corp’s data center by using a connected HVAC system.

These are real threats that are being exploited by criminals to gain unauthorized access and steal data from companies today.

In the past, Pwnie has made it clear that they do not condone the criminal use of penetration testing tools and devices. But pentesting is important, and having the tools to do it properly is part of that process.

Sometimes you need to break things to find and fix serious security vulnerabilities in the devices and networks that permeate nearly every facet of our daily lives. The bad guys have every tool available to them; white hats should be equally well-equipped.

And as for what Elliot does in the show?

He’s a pretty well-established gray character. Is he good? Or is he bad?

Either way, it was pretty cool.

A group of unknown hackers or an individual hacker may have breached voter registration databases for election systems in at least two US states, according to the FBI, who found evidence during an investigation this month.

Although any intrusion in the state voting system has not been reported, the FBI is currently investigating the cyberattacks on the official websites for voter registration system in both Illinois and Arizona, said Yahoo News.

The FBI's Cyber Division released a "Flash Alert" to election offices and officials across the United States, asking them to watch out for any potential intrusions and take better security precautions.

"In late June 2016, an unknown actor scanned a state's Board of Election website for vulnerabilities using Acunetix, and after identifying a Structured Query Language (SQL) injection (SQLi) vulnerability, used SQLmap to target the state website," the FBI alert reads.

"The majority of the data exfiltration occurred in mid-July. There were 7 suspicious IPs and penetration testing tools Acunetix, SQLMap, and DirBuster used by the actor."

The SQL injection attack on Illinois state board website took place in late July, which brought down the state’s voter registration for ten days and siphoned off data on as many as 200,000 registered voters.

However, the Arizona attack was less significant, as the hackers were not able to discover any potential loophole using a vulnerability scanning tool, which could have allowed them to steal any data successfully.

In the wake of these attacks, the FBI also advised ‘Board of Elections’ of all States to investigate their server logs and determine whether any similar SQL injection, privilege escalation attempts, or directory enumeration activity has occurred.

Last December, a misconfigured 300GB of the database also resulted in the exposure of around 191 Million US Voter records, including their full names, home addresses, unique voter IDs, date of births and phone numbers.

Why Blame Russia, Always? There's No Evidence Yet

The attacks against the state election boards came weeks after the DNC hack that leaked embarrassing emails about the party, leading to the resignation of DNC (Democratic National Committee) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Some security experts and law enforcement agencies raised concerns about politically motivated hacking, pointing finger over theRussian state-sponsored hackers in an attempt to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Although the FBI does not attribute the recent attacks to any particular hacking group or country, Yahoo News links the attacks to Russia on the basis of IP addresses involved.

However, those IP addresses that the FBI said were associated with the attacks belong to a Russian VPN service, which does not conclude that the Russians are behind the attacks.

It's believed that the hacks were carried out to disturb the election process either by altering voting totals in the database or by modifying the voter registration page.

Script-Kiddie Move Reveals Everything:

But, by scanning the website with a vulnerability scanner and downloading the whole database, the ‘script-kiddies’ itself made a rod for their own back, which indicates that neither they are sophisticated state-sponsored hackers, nor they had any intention to influence the election covertly.

Neither the Illinois nor Arizona board of elections have responded to these hack attempts.