The United Kingdom’s Electoral Commission, which oversees the country’s electoral process, announced today that it was the victim of a cyber attack by “hostile actors” who gained access to its system over a year ago.

“We have been subjected to a complex cyber attack and hostile actors have gained access to our systems,” this independent organization told Platform X. It did not name the hackers who broke into its servers, which mainly store copies of electoral rolls, with the data of millions of voters.

“We know which systems were accessible to hostile actors but we are not able to clearly know which records were accessed,” Election Commission Director General Sean McNally said in a statement.

According to the Commission, the cyberattack was discovered in October 2022 after “suspicious activity” was detected on its systems. It then “became clear that hostile agents penetrated the systems for the first time in August 2021.”

“We’re sorry it took so long to find them,” he added.

However, the Commission appeared reassuring, stressing that “it is very difficult” to affect the democratic process through such a cyber attack.

After the Brexit referendum in 2016 and in the parliamentary elections the following year, British authorities expressed suspicions that Russia tried to influence the results.