The Electoral Commission apologised for the security breach in which the names and addresses of all voters registered between 2014 and 2022 were open to "hostile actors" as far back as August 2021.
The attack was discovered last October and reported within 72 hours to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), as well as the National Crime Agency. However, the public has only now been informed that the electoral registers containing the data of millions of voters may have been accessible throughout that time.
The Electoral Commission said it was "not able to know conclusively" what information had been accessed. It is not known whether the attackers were linked to a hostile state, such as Russia, or a criminal cybergang.
The watchdog said "much of the data" was already in the public domain and insisted it would be difficult for anyone to influence the outcome of the UK's largely paper-based electoral system, but it acknowledged voters would still be concerned.
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