Hacker Arrested after exposing data in election

By Manal Shaikh

A security researcher disclosed vulnerabilities in the poorly secured web domains of a Florida county elections, but he ended up in handcuffs on criminal hacking charges and jailed for six hours Wednesday.

Security researcher David Michael Levin was arrested and charged by the United States law enforcement after breaking into and disclosing some serious vulnerabilities in a couple of elections websites in Florida.

Levin, 31, of Estero, Florida was charged with three counts of gaining unauthorized access to a computer, network, or electronic instrument.

He spent six hours in jail last Wednesday before being released on a $15,000 bond, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials said.

According to Florida Police, Levin illegally accessed the Lee County website on 19 December last year using the stolen credentials.

This event was then followed by two other, on Jan. 4 and Jan. 31, 2016, when Levin hacked into the Department’s State Elections website as well.

A YouTube video publically posted by Levin in late January showed him entering the username and password of Sharon Harrington, the county's Supervisor of Elections, to gain control of a content management system (CMS) used to control the official website of Florida's Office of Elections.