What was initially thought to be a sophisticated attempt to hack into the Democratic National Committee’s voter database turned out to be a test.

After suspicious activity was reported to the FBI on Tuesday, DNC Chief Security Officer Bob Lord issued a statement admitting it was a false alarm.

"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 on VoteBuilder,” Lord said. The security test had not been authorized by the DNC, VoteBuilder, or any of the party’s vendors, he added.



So apparently phishing attack on DNC was a false alarm. Source familiar with the matter says the Michigan Democratic Party asked a third party to conduct a "simulated phishing test" on the voter database but without authorization from the DNC. pic.twitter.com/AESUzB5yOX — Michael Kan (@Michael_Kan) August 23, 2018

The DNC told the FBI earlier this week that it detected an advanced effort to hack into its voter database. A fake login page for VoteBuilder had been created to try and collect usernames and passwords that would give access to the database.

“There are constant attempts to hack the DNC and our Democratic infrastructure, and 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 in light of potential attacks,” Lord said.

The test had been conducted at the request of the Michigan Democratic Party, which had not notified the national committee ahead of time of the test, the Washington Post reported Thursday.