'FBI raids Arizona Home in Connection to Election Cyberattack
DECEMBER 7, 2020
As the battle grows throughout the country in the courts for the all-important electoral college votes needed to secure the presidency, what if I told you that the FBI had already raided someone’s home in connection to a cyber attack on election data?
On the morning of November 5, as the 2020 election hung in the balance, Arizona federal agents raided a two-story house in Fountain Hills, Maricopa County, a county that had become a key battleground in the presidential race.
The agents were looking for evidence of a cyberattack on an unnamed organization and stolen voter data. They left with eight hard drives, three computers, and a bag of USB sticks. The resident of the property, a 56-year-old IT expert named Elliot Kerwin, was served the warrant.
According to the warrant, investigators were looking for records, information, and communications related to the office’s:
Login credentials and accounts.
Voter registration records and information, including protected voters’ data.
The transfer, sharing or dissemination of voter registration records and information, including protected voters’ information.
Unauthorized access to the office’s website and computer systems.
Attempts or threats to damage computer systems.
It is unknown if Kerwin will face charges connected to the warrant and alleged theft. There is no indication that anything other than voters’ information, which can be acquired legally for a fee in Arizona, was taken from the affected office.
Investigators have been looking into a computer intrusion at an unnamed “victim office,” which occurred from October 21 to November 4. At the Kerwin residence, they were looking for any evidence within the seized computers that showed they’d been used to access the IT network at the office, as well as “protected voters’ information” and any indication that it had been disseminated to other people.
“Analysis by the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office IT Security indicates an unauthorized individual gathered publicly accessible voter information from our website,” a spokesperson said. They didn’t specify what voter information and declined to comment any further on the nature of the attack. The data trove could be significant; there were more than 2.5 million registered voters in the county for the 2020 election.
“Additional security controls were put in place to mitigate against this activity occurring in the future. The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office has reported this to proper authorities and law enforcement personnel, and there is an ongoing investigation by the FBI at this time. The FBI informed our office today they served a warrant,” the spokesperson added.
At this time, there is no indication that the breach or the stolen data could have impacted the election. Maricopa county claims that the systems used to count the votes were not affected.
But who is Elliot Kerwin and what may his motives have been?
Forbes is reporting that this is not the first time police have investigated Kerwin in connection to an election. According to a police report obtained by Forbes, on April 1, 2011, when he was the IT administrator for the City of Ashland, Wisconsin, he was questioned by police regarding spoof emails, sent out just ahead of a local election.
Initially, Kerwin denied any knowledge of who sent the emails, assisting police in looking through local government servers to determine the emails’ author. He eventually admitted to sending emails from the City of Ashland’s own IT systems, posing as former councilor James Melin and city resident Zygmund Jablonski Jr. The emails apparently made little sense and were written in all caps, but referenced the election. At the time, Jablonski said he was concerned the faked emails were trying to “put some type of spin on the election.”
No charges were filled in that case as the City of Ashland handled the incident themselves, and the police report shows that Kerwin claimed the emails were supposed to be satire or a practical joke.
Also, according to reporting from Forbes, since leaving local government, Kerwin has been running his own IT companies, one named Loon-a-Tech, where he promised “assistance with viruses, malware and security software.” According to his online CV, that Mercer, Wisconsin, the business was closed in mid-2019, when he set up Desert Oasis Technology in Fountain Hills, Arizona, just northeast of metropolitan Phoenix. He also set up a sister company, Desert Oasis Tactical, which lists four specialties: weapon, warrior, defense, and research. Amongst his services at his tech company are “cyber forensics” and “surveillance.”
https://www.ptnewsnetwork.com/fbi-raids-arizona-home-in-connection-to-election-cyberattack/