The founder and CEO of Konnech , a companyat the middle ofmany 2020 election denierconspiracy theories , was arrest on Tuesday under misgiving of data point thieving . Specifically , Eugene Yu is accused of storing Los Angeles County poll worker information on server in China , in violation of Konnech ’s contract bridge with the county , according toa pressure statementfrom the LA County District Attorney ’s Office . The story wasfirst reportedby The New York Times .
Yu was arrested in Michigan , where he lives , the command allege . The LA DA ’s office write that it is “ seek [ his ] extradition to Los Angeles . ” On top of the administrator ’s pinch , investigator also seized “ hard drives and other digital evidence . ”
Konnech is a modest party that distributes PollChief , an election prole management software program , to multiple municipality around the U.S. , include Los Angeles . The software helps to schedule and direct poll staffing . consort to thecompany ’s website , they have 32 node in North America , the first of which was the City of Detroit . PollChief is also used in Allen County , Indiana , and Dekalb County , Georgia , according toan Oct. 3 reportfrom the New York Times .
Unfounded conspiracy theories alleging the 2020 election was fraudulent have proliferated widely in the past two years. A CEO of one of the small companies targeted by such theorists was arrested over data theft allegations on Tuesday.Photo:Lyonstock(Shutterstock)
That article adumbrate how unfounded confederacy theories say Konnech ’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party have spread widely among election deniers . These theorizer often “ support ” their title simply by betoken out the pagan background and national origin of some of the company ’s 21 employees , and CEO Yu .
From the Times :
Using threadbare evidence , or none at all , the grouping suggested that a small American election software system society , Konnech , had private tie to the Chinese Communist Party and had given the Chinese governing backdoor access code to personal data about two million poll parrot doer in the United States , according to on-line story from several people at the group discussion .
Konnech has denied any mishandling of info , and a voice told the Times that all of its U.S. data is stash away on domesticated servers and that it has phonograph record on fewer than 240,000 pate workers . However , one day after the online publishing of the Times ’ narration , Yu was arrested .
In a statement emailed to Gizmodo , the caller write , “ We are continuing to learn the details of what we believe to be Mr. Yu ’s unlawful custody by L.A. County government agency … Any L.A. County poll doer datum that Konnech may have possessed was provide to it by L.A. County , and therefore could not have been ‘ stolen ’ as suggested . ”
In September , Konnech sued election denier chemical group True the Vote for alleged calumny and the society was granted an hand brake impermanent restraining order by a judge in the case , according to the Times .
Worth noting : no matter of whether or not some of Konnech ’s information was salt away on servers in China , LA County said that would ’ve had no bearing on election termination or ballot counts . Though the DA ’s office did n’t exactly specialize what info was stored improperly .
“ This investigation is concerned solely with the personal identifying entropy of election workers . In this case , the alleged conduct had no impact on the tabular matter of votes and did not alter election results , ” the county ’s news statement said . “ But certificate in all look of any election is essential so that we all have full faith in the integrity of the election process . ”
“ I want to thank my prosecutors and investigator for their allegiance to wipe out cyber invasion against government entity and local businesses , ” LA District Attorney George Gascón said in the assertion . “ Data breach are an ongoing threat to our digital way of life . When we entrust a troupe to hold our secret data point , they must be uncoerced and able to protect our personal identifying information from larceny . Otherwise , we are all victims . ”
Yet the alleged information break here is much small-scale than the ransomware blast that strike LA ’s Unified School District last month . before this week , 500 GB of potentially raw data from the districtwas posted online . No arrest have been made in that case yet .
Update 2025-02-09 , 12:18 p.m. ET : This taradiddle has been update with a statement from Konnech .
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