BRITAIN’S elections watchdog was last night on the rack for failing to notice a major hack for more than a year.
Cyber-attackers gained access to 40 million voters’ details in August 2021 but were only detected in October 2022.
The Electoral Commission only announced the massive security breach by “hostile actors” this week and yesterday faced fury for the lapse.
Voters affected by the hack went online demanding an explanation from bosses over why it took so long to spot.
Ex-Cabinet Minister David Davis told The Sun: “Public agencies like the Electoral Commission have a serious duty of care when it comes to handling public data, and they appear to have failed abysmally at that.
“The public will expect the appropriate people to take action as a matter of extreme urgency.”
Experts believe the hack was a state-sponsored attack, but sources have since suggested Russia is not the prime suspect.
James Sullivan, director of cyber research at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies said: “Most state-led cyber operations are conducted to gather intelligence and spy.
“And when we look at some of the data that has been accessed, there was no financial impact from this incident as far as we know.
“It is most likely that the reason for this intrusion, given the type of data accessed and the length of time the adversary had in the network, fits with a state-led cyber operation.”