Democrats Ignored Cybersecurity Warnings Before Theft

The Democratic National Committee was warned in the fall of 2015 that its computer network was susceptible to attacks but didn’t follow the security advice it was given, apparently. The missed opportunity is another blow to party officials already embarrassed by the theft and public disclosure of e-mails that have disrupted their presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia (PA) and led their chairwoman to resign.

Computer security consultants hired by the DNC made dozens of recommendations after a two-month review, apparently. Following the advice, which would typically include having specialists hunt for intruders on the network, might have alerted party officials that hackers had been lurking in their network for weeks -- hackers who would stay for nearly a year. Instead, officials didn’t discover the breach until April. The theft ultimately led to the release of almost 20,000 internal e-mails through WikiLeaks on the eve of the convention.