NRA Campaign Filing Confirms Ransomware Attack

Zach Everson

Staff Writer

MARCH 17, 2022

NRA Campaign Filing Confirms Ransomware Attack

A campaign filing the NRA’s political action committee made last week confirmed that the group did indeed suffer a ransomware attack last fall.

In October 2021, a Russian cybercriminal group called Grief claimed to have hacked the NRA and posted 13 of the organization’s files to a site on the dark web, reported NBC News. At the time, the NRA tweeted that “it does not discuss matters relating to its physical or electronic security,” but that it “takes extraordinary measures to protect information regarding its members, donors, and operations.”

In a filing made with the Federal Election Commission on Friday to explain why it needed to amend some reports, however, the NRA’s Political Victory Fund admitted that the NRA had in fact been the victim of a ransomware attack:

On October 20, 2021, our sponsoring organization was victim of a ransomware attack that took our network offline for over two weeks. During that time, we were not able to access email or network files. When our Information Security team brought our network back online, the process was undertaken slowly and carefully, with the end result that we did not have full access to our network and the internet until the second week of November. During the network restoration process, one batch of credit card receipts was not processed correctly into our donor database.

A spokesperson for the NRA did not immediately respond to an inquiry.

In a filing with the FEC last week, the NRA confirmed it had been the victim of a ransomware attack last October. Federal Election Commission/National Rifle Association of America Political Victory Fund

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*****

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Oopsies

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*****

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NSSF’s decision to host the conference at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., was based on a best cost estimate, according to Mark Oliva, NSSF’s spokesperson. “NSSF fielded requests for proposals from several venues in Washington, D.C. and Trump International Hotel offered the most cost-effective, competitive rate,” he said, declining to disclose what that rate was. As for government employees addressing customers of the then-president’s hotel at past conferences, Oliva said, “There have been no issues or concerns to my awareness of federal employees attending.”

NSSF

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Federal Election Commission/Great American Committee PAC

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NRA Campaign Filing Confirms Ransomware Attack

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