{
  "id": 7845811,
  "title": "Days before Russia’s State Duma elections, hackers say they accessed the election commission’s IT systems and downloaded server configurations and internal documents",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/16/days-before-russias-state-duma-elections-hackers-say-they-accessed",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-16T18:48:56.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Meduza (English)",
    "slug": "meduza-english",
    "url": "https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/09/16/days-before-russia-s-state-duma-elections-hackers-say-they-accessed-the-election-commission-s-it-systems-and-downloaded-server-configurations-and-internal-documents"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Days before the Russian State Duma elections, which take place from September 18-20, hackers claimed to have infiltrated the IT systems of the Central Election Commission and the Vybory 2.0 automated election system developers. The hackers, known as CikLeak, reportedly downloaded internal documents, server configurations, passwords, and employee communications. They provided the stolen material to investigative outlet IStories, which confirmed the documents' authenticity. IStories is now conducting an investigation into how Russia's electoral system functions based on the leaked data. The hackers reached out to Alexey Gusev, the head of Tsifrotekh, a Rostelecom subsidiary whose infrastructure was compromised. However, Gusev was unaware of the breach. The Central Election Commission's head, Ella Pamfilova, had previously stated in August that the Vybory system was unhackable. Following the breach report, the commission revealed that they had analyzed vulnerabilities in both the Vybory system and the video monitoring system. Pamfilova labeled the video monitoring and live streaming service as the \"weak link\" in the overall system. At Meduza, the outlet covered this story, adhering to transparent practices about the use of artificial intelligence in their newsroom. The article was authored by a human journalist and translated from Russian using an AI model that follows Meduza's editorial guidelines. Each draft undergoes review by a Meduza editor before publication. Should you spot any inaccuracies in this translation, please reach out to reports@meduza.io. For access to Meduza's exclusive English-language content, subscribe to their newsletter.",
  "summary": "The anonymous hacking group CikLeak said it had gained access to the IT infrastructure of Russia’s Central Election Commission and contractors developing Vybory 2.0, the state-run automated election system.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Meduza (English)",
        "title": "Russia’s 2026 parliamentary election has no meaningful competition. Independent observers still plan to document how paper and online results diverge.",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/16/russias-2026-parliamentary-election-has-no-meaningful-competition",
        "published": "2026-09-16T17:28:43.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}