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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."

10 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. 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 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
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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
  5. 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....

  6. 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.

  7. 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.