'Hack' of DNC Was Actually a Test

This week, the Democratic National Committee raised the alarm to the FBI about an attempt to hack its system through a phishing scheme. On Thursday, however, the DNC said it has since learned that the hack wasn't a hack after all—it was a security test, reports the Wall Street Journal. The confusion began when the cybersecurity firm Lookout warned the DNC that it had found a fake log-in page in what was assumed to be an attempt to steal the credentials of people using the site. As it turns out, that fake log-in page had been a security test—though one that apparently slipped through the proper communication channels.

"We, along with the partners who reported the [fake] site, now believe it was built by a third party as part of a simulated phishing test,” says the DNC's chief security officer, per the Washington Post. The DNC is not revealing who that "third party" is, or how it figured out that the incident was a test. "While we are extremely relieved that this wasn’t an attempted intrusion by a foreign adversary, this incident is further proof that we need to continue to be vigilant," says the official. (More hackers stories.)