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Database of 191 Million US Voters Exposed On Internet (reuters.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-your-business dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Researcher Chris Vickery has discovered an incorrectly configured database that exposes the details of 191 million U.S. voters. Reuters reports: "While voter data is typically considered public information, it would be time-consuming and expensive to gather a database of all American voters. A trove of all U.S. voter data could be valuable to criminals looking for lists of large numbers of targets for a variety of fraud schemes. 'The alarming part is that the information is so concentrated,' said Vickery."

77 comments

  1. News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Public data is public! Everyone panic!

    1. Re:News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      JESUS CHRIST, millions of slashdot comments are available if you click "load all posts"

      HOLY SHIT

    2. Re:News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Na, Republicans are the technologically impaired ones. These guys are scummy Dems looking at more ways to weasel and cheat their way through another election most likely.

    3. Re:News Flash! by sumdumass · · Score: 0

      Republican, democrats, about all the parties candidates could be included but you are foolish if you actually think it is limited to politicians of any party or all of them.

      I see you voted in the last democrat primary, donations to us will help stop those republicans. Or democrats vote on Thursdays and republicans vote on mondays- see ya at the polls. Mr Anonymous Coward of 123 wanderland lane, if you could give me your social security number or a bank card to verify your identity, i can inform you of the new polling locations for your district.

      Traditionally, You had to request the information leaving a trail if you actually did something like that. Getting the information anonymously sort of bypasses that so people looking to do harm do not have as much fear of being caught.

    4. Re:News Flash! by frovingslosh · · Score: 2

      Even worse, TFA admits that one of the reasons for compiling the public information was to supply it to the biggest criminals in the country, the political parties. When will this horror end? And why aren't the politicians doing anything about it? ....Oh, never mind.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    5. Re:News Flash! by frovingslosh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sure, just the Republicans. Because Clinton is so honorable and would never do anything wrong or criminal.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    6. Re: News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pot meet kettle. Kettle meet pot. You two will get along. Where did all the old Slashdot readers go?

    7. Re:News Flash! by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Reuters, Dec 28 - "Investigators were shocked to discover books all over the United States - believed to have been compiled by criminal syndicates - containing tens of millions of American home addresses and phone numbers, as well as those for hundreds of thousands of businesses. These largish books, comprised of both grayish-white pages and yellow pages, surprisingly were found to have been left unattended on urban and suburban streets - likely as part of an as-yet-undetermined criminal network of dead drops."

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    8. Re:News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      From what I have learned about Democrats they are usually the first to claim being victimized and last to admit it.

      Based on my experience I would expect Democrats to do the exploiting and conning first, cry foul it was the "other guy" next, then use the media as a smoke-screen.

    9. Re: News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you don't have the Supreme Court and state election clerks in your pocket, you do what ya gotta do...

    10. Re:News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's an advanced encryption algorithm, NSA needs 100 billion more in funding to crack this "Terror" network, Think of the children! Patriots unite to combat this known threat!

    11. Re: News Flash! by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 0

      I've got some Rad-X up and plenty of Radaway, so I'll respond to this.

      On the one side, we have a candidate who has a proven track record of making the right vote no matter how unpopular. Looking at Sanders' votes on major things at least, I can say I would have voted the exact same way were I a senator. He's a socialist and I'm a libertarian!

      On the other side, we have a businessman who can't seem to increase his own wealth beyond his inheritance but is a master of bluster and bullshit. In fact, his only profitable ventures seem to rely on his bluster and bullshit as selling points. (What was that called? The Apprentice or someshit? That crap actually gives me PTSD at this point--actually had an attack while watching Hell's Kitchen with a guy I was thinking about dating.)

      Back to the first side, we have a very evil woman who wants the presidency above all else and may have even hired said incompetent business man to accomplish that very goal. In fact, it seems that she's conducted a deal with the DNC to get the nomination, and the DNC engaged in gaslighting asshole maneuvers recently with the Sanders campaign. Why did Trump change from D to R at the end of her husband's presidency? Some have speculated that this was in exchange for her overlooking her husband's infidelity, but somebody who would agree to such a thing probably doesn't have a soul to begin with.

      What's surprising to me is that Jeb! isn't polling better. I hate dynasties, but he really does seem to be the most viable Republican candidate. He could actually give some decent, honest debates with Sanders.

      However, consider this. Jeb! and that evil woman are both dynasties. Consider the similarity of the appeal of both Trump and Sanders. I think we're looking at a big upset in 2016.

    12. Re:News Flash! by guevera · · Score: 1

      Getting public records anonymously is fairly common. It's not like I show ID when I pick up my records. Now days I usually don't even have to pick them up -- email or ftp is common, someday I hope to get a torrent link as response to a records request.

    13. Re:News Flash! by meadow · · Score: 1

      This is just one more component of the farce that stands for democracy in the United States. These voter lists are part of a dirty system which is essentially a force-feeding ad-campaigns which substitute for actual electoral campaigns in which candidates would normally have things called platforms, and engage in debate and discussion about things like issues.

      But instead the farce involves everyone whose registered to vote to have their personal data given away to marketeers who then force-feed them a barrage of the most appalling drivel. Prior to every election one can expect to fill multiple grocery-bags full of the junk mail sent by the marketeers. And if you contact your local board of elections and tell them you want to opt-out, they will reply that the only way to do so is to unregister to vote. So, just by wanting to participate in the farce "democracy", one is already complicit with the BS marketing farce that substitutes for actual campaigns.

      It is sick and appalling and there needs to be drastic change. First of all make all voting online. Second EVERY voter must be verified as an actual US citizen and tough crap if someone can't be bothered to walk down to their local department of motor vehicles to get a frikkin ID card, but that is what the Democracts have been crying about as violations of voters' "rights".

      Now they are giving IDs to illegals and California just passed a law that ALL people registering for drivers licenses will automatically be registered to vote. Only complete fools fail to see that the real intention of allowing in 20+ million illegal immigrants 3/4 of whom are illiterate has anything to do with humanitarianism or opportunity, but a ploy to get more voters.

      I can only say that the only way out of this oligarchic disaster that America has become is: Donald Trump 2016.

    14. Re:News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So saving this

    15. Re:News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn you Bernie Sanders!

  2. Fraud schemes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The entire campaign is a fraud scheme, full of liars and cheats, that's what it takes to win. How will this make it worse?

    1. Re:Fraud schemes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well... if they have a list of voters and where they live then they can drive-by all of the poorly secured (and wifi enabled) voting machines in order to falsify votes that 'look' legitimate

      By spreading it all over they internet they manage to make it look like 'anybody' could have done it

    2. Re:Fraud schemes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is being done now. This "leak" won't make a difference.

    3. Re:Fraud schemes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "This "leak" won't make a difference."

      Except for making it harder to trace 'who' had access to this info and providing plausible deniability to anybody who is caught with it of committing any shenanigans

    4. Re:Fraud schemes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, that's why we need paper ballots.

  3. In other news... by msauve · · Score: 4, Funny

    "A trove of all U.S. voter data could be valuable to criminals looking for lists of large numbers of targets for a variety of fraud schemes. "

    Wait until the author discovers phone books!

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:In other news... by khasim · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's a difference. From TFA:

      The database includes names, addresses, birth dates, party affiliations, phone numbers and emails of voters in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, researcher Chris Vickery said in a phone interview.

      So "spear phising" just got a LOT easier.

      Via email: Happy Birthday (name)! Click here to see a personal birthday message from (politician).

    2. Re: In other news... by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

      And why is party affiliation registered? Which sympaties you have is supposed to be a secret in a true democracy.

      Even the need to register seems to be questionable from a democratic perspective.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    3. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Because party primaries are run by the state rather than the party.

    4. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh, I've actually gotten an email like that; I can't remember if the actual campaign sent it or the state party, however.

    5. Re: In other news... by msauve · · Score: 2

      All the more reason to not require keeping that info. Someone votes in a primary, they're marked as having voted and can't vote in any other party's primary for that election. Requiring party declaration and paperwork to switch parties is antithetical to democracy, although the major parties like it.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    6. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And why is party affiliation registered?

      In many states, you must be a registered member of a part to vote in a primary. If you're registered "Independent" you can't tell the parties who their candidate should be.

    7. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In many states people have to state their party when they register in order to vote in their party's primary. There are a few states, Minnesota for one, where people get to choose their party at the polls in primary elections and others where there are no party primaries. Voter registration material is public information in every state and that includes party affiliation where that is required. The story is silly, voter registration data is really only useful to political campaigns. Even for that purpose, you can find a lot of databases for sale that contain a lot more information about voters than this.

      The story is silly media hype.

  4. I'm just a bill. by ROBOT9001 · · Score: 1

    I'm just Bill.
    Yes, I'm only Bill.
    And I'm sitting in a public database thanks to Capitol Hill.

  5. The fact that it even exists... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Such a modern country where you're not supposed to vote by default, but have to register and have your information exposed like this.

    Fucking ridiculous.

  6. Small Potatoes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only one million? Slackers! The Secretary Of States office in Georgia exposed all 6 million registered voters with a list that contained Name, Address, Social Security Number and just about every other juicy bit of info anyone would want. He claimed it was a clerical error and fired the IT guy he SAID was responsible and that nobody has anything to worry about....

    1. Re:Small Potatoes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only one million? Slackers! The Secretary Of States office in Georgia exposed all 6 million registered voters with a list that contained Name, Address, Social Security Number and just about every other juicy bit of info anyone would want.

      Not One Million, 191 Million. These 191 million included all 6 million Georgia voters.

      That database of 6M Georgians? It gets distributed every month. The big scare was that, in November, it contained social security numbers in addition to the usual name, address, party, and phone.

      This whole thing is some media mogul trying to scare people with the idea that public information is public. It's the reuters version of "Your computer may be broadcasting an IP address RIGHT NOW!"

    2. Re: Small Potatoes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If your computer broadcasts an IP address, you might want to look in to that.

  7. Anything $500 or is public information by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I found out the hard way that donating $500 to a good candidate (Ron Paul) means that your name and donation is public information. I guess most of the people who are 30yo or younger would say good. Still, it doesn't seem right to me, but then again I'm old fashioned. I still think that the 4th amendment was a good idea.

  8. Re:Government doing what government knows best... by GerryGilmore · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Normally, I don't respond to trolling ACs, but - if you had RTFA - you would know that the data was NOT taken from a "gubmint" site. But, that would spoil your "Gubmint Bad - Trump Good" view of things and we sure can't have THAT! Dumbass....

  9. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We can find all this by going to the PUBLIC LIBRARY anyway.

  10. Panic! by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

    This information has been available for free since before WWII. The rolls of registered voters and their addresses have always been freely available. You didn't even need to fill out a FOIA request. Just pop down to the local county clerk and ask. They'll even print it out for you if you'd prefer that to the raw data. In most places, you can also get party affiliation. It's neatly organized by ward and precinct.

    That's part of the problem with representative governments and free societies. If you want to participate, you have to give up some of your anonymity. There isn't really any practical alternative, and I'm not sure there should be one.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Panic! by burtosis · · Score: 2

      This included the phone numbers, date of birth, and email addresses as well. But at this point it's ho-hum as insecure data is stolen daily.

    2. Re:Panic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did nobody watch Black Sheep? That's how Chris Farley found out about the voter fraud with dead people voting, by just going to clerk and asking. Spoiler alert, Chris Farley dies.

  11. Publish it by mi · · Score: 1

    While voter data is typically considered public information, it would be time-consuming and expensive to gather a database of all American voters

    So, make the next step and publish the data. Make it easy to browse and peruse.

    Government already knows it, and it is nominally public — make it actually public.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  12. Ha ha ha ha ha by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    Ha ha ha ha ha...wait, what the FUCK?

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  13. US population is 330M by darthsilun · · Score: 1

    Population under 18: 74M (US Census Bureau)

    Might as well just release the other 65M records so we can collect the whole set.

    1. Re: US population is 330M by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like everyone over the age of 18 is registered to vote...
      If it's really 191 million that is likely all registered voters.

  14. Wrong question ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... the question is: Who did NOT vote.

    This could help answer that.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  15. No Landline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not everyone has a landline you egocentric asshole. If you think everyone should be listed in the phone book or a voter database then say hello to my middle finger.

    1. Re:No Landline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not sure why you responded like that. Did you understand GP's point?

    2. Re:No Landline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your question implies two claims. The question's first claim is that the GP to be making ONE and ONLY one claim or "point". The second claim is that the GP's post claims that a phone book contains "lists of large numbers of targets" for criminals. The parent reply did not dispute the second claim. This reply is disputing the first claim. The GP is making the additional claim that the phone book has a more substantial or equal impact than this breach with the words "Wait until". Phone books are public, but have a way to opt out and still have a phone number. This is not the case for voter registration records. They can be made unlisted per the will of the state for select individuals through a process much more difficult than the prior, but must be on file to vote. The linked article references the databreaches.net article (http://www.databreaches.net/191-million-voters-personal-info-exposed-by-misconfigured-database/) that gives an example where this will be a problem for a police officer.

  16. So, what can we expect? by Khashishi · · Score: 2

    So what is the problem with making free information more easily available?
    Voter fraud done by lone wolves as opposed to by political parties? That sounds like an improvement.

    1. Re:So, what can we expect? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Voter fraud works by taking lists of names and addresses of people likely not voting and passing that information to others (usually illegal immigrants or extremely poor people) to use those names to vote. It doesn't lend itself to "lone wolves" because an individual, even with such a list, can only hit so many places in the day or two polls are open.

  17. Re:Government doing what government knows best... by frovingslosh · · Score: 1, Informative

    Looking at your list of "accomplishments" it is very hard to determine if you are being serious or sarcastic. I certainly could argue against a lot of them.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  18. I think you mean all.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    191 million... I'm sure that number would constitute all US voters.

  19. related by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A trove of all U.S. voter data could be valuable to criminals looking for lists of large numbers of targets for a variety of fraud schemes.

    http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8542547&cid=51199095

  20. voting is a state and local thing.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    how the hell did this many records end up in a SINGLE DATABASE? there's no single voting precinct or state that large... what the fuck is going on here?

    1. Re:voting is a state and local thing.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      copy and paste

    2. Re:voting is a state and local thing.. by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      Someone upgraded from that old version of Excel that only supported 65536 rows.

    3. Re:voting is a state and local thing.. by tburkhol · · Score: 1

      how the hell did this many records end up in a SINGLE DATABASE? there's no single voting precinct or state that large...

      An enterprising US company went to every state and asked for their voter records. They combined these 51 databases into one convenient product, which they sell to the national parties and major SuperPACs.

      If you're outraged by anything, you should be outraged that some ne'er-do-well has released that database for free, completely destroying the commercial value of a hard-working American company.

  21. Re: In other news... The party affiliation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This depends on how the state runs its primaries. If your state takes party affiliation then its there for Tx for example however you show up at whichever parties primary you wish and can change every two years. So which would show up in the database??

  22. Sadly, database is no longer accessible.... by guevera · · Score: 1

    ...did anyone download it while it was up? Would save me a bunch of time dealing with individual county registrars offices if someone could put this up as a torrent or something.

  23. If you can't secure it, don't collect it by sandbagger · · Score: 1

    How often must this be said?

    Security is NOT optional and yes, you need to pay for it continually and it doesn't have uniform predictable levels of effort.

    --
    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
    1. Re:If you can't secure it, don't collect it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What exactly is the whole point in registering a person's name next to a vote? Isn't voting supposed to be anonymous?

      Is this because of some US-specific thing?

      You have to prove you are allowed to vote before you enter the voting station, but after that only your vote should be recorded.

    2. Re:If you can't secure it, don't collect it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're confused. The vote itself is anonymous. These are voter registrations. When you show up at the polls, your name has to be on the list or you can't vote (this ignores irrelevant details).

  24. A non-news post about nonsense? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So... this information is out there, publicly available, and a site took all this public data and conglomerated it into one easily usable interface?

    And the reason this is news is because you wan't to spin it as "privacy issues" instead of the "making public services accessible" that it is?

    I see this as streamlining the government assets and making it more publicly available.

    A more transparent government as it were.

    This isn't a privacy issue.Stop demonizing this messenger service for ad revenue.

    If it is a privacy issue at all, it's **because the information is available from government sources, not because a private entity cataloged it**.

    1. Re:A non-news post about nonsense? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see this as streamlining the government assets and making it more publicly available.

      Great! We'll publish your identity-theft enablers first. What's that, you say? It's irresponsible? Well--tough! We're just streamlining access to public information!

  25. Re:Government doing what government knows best... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and that makes you an idiot

  26. Re:Anything $500 or is public information by KGIII · · Score: 1

    There's a reason for that. Donations to campaigns need to be attributable in order to avoid abuses. They're still (probably) rife with abuse but the goal is noble. I believe you can donate to a PAC and get away with some level of anonymity.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  27. XXVOTERS.COM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    where XX = the 2 letter abbreviation for your state.