Millions of Texas Voter Records Exposed Online (techcrunch.com)

A folder containing an estimated 14.8 million Texas voter records was left on an unsecured server without a password. Considering Texas has 19.3 million registered voters, this leak is very substantial. The file was discovered by a New Zealand-based data breach hunter who goes by the pseudonym Flash Gordon. TechCrunch reports: It's not clear who owned the server where the exposed file was found, but an analysis of the data reveals that it was likely originally compiled by Data Trust, a Republican-focused data analytics firm created by the GOP to provide campaigns with voter data. The file -- close to 16 gigabytes in size -- contained dozens of fields, including personal information like a voter's name, address, gender and several years' worth of voting history, including primaries and presidential elections. It's not known exactly when the data was compiled, but an analysis of the data suggests it was prepared in time for the 2016 presidential election. It's also not known if the file is a subset of the 198 million records leak last year -- or if it's a standalone data set.

Comments

Voting History Question?

[turp182]

Is the voting history the standard stuff, not including actual candidate selection?

I have to assume so unless people are voluntarily providing this. Per the article below public information can include:
* Name
* Street address
* Party affiliation
* Elections in which you did (or did not) vote
* Phone number
* Email address

https://www.forbes.com/sites/m...

I have to assume that's what is available, then aggregated with other information since the summary referred to dozens of data points.

Frightening that such data could be public to be honest.

I just read the article, pretty scary shit, people should stop participating in surveys or any sort:

"For example, the data includes fields that might score an individualâ(TM)s believed views on immigration, hunting, abortion rights, government spending and views on the Second Amendment."