Thanks to an incorrectly configured database, the personal information of about 191 million U.S. citizens is currently exposed on the open Internet, putting nearly the entire the voting population of the country at risk of ID theft, hacking and fraud, as HNGN previously reported.
Chris Vickery, the computer security researcher who discovered the information, said the database includes the names, addresses, birth dates, party affiliations, phone numbers and email addresses of voters in every state in the U.S., as well as Washington D.C., according to the New York Daily News.
He revealed that he found the information while looking for leaked information on the Internet to raise awareness of data leaks. "I want our society to respect privacy more," he said.
Though most of this information is generally considered public information, many states make it illegal to place it online with unrestricted access, reported U.S. News and World Report. Furthermore, to access such information legally, one would need to pay fees or agree not to use it for commercial purposes and only be available to persons within the United States.
"The alarming part is that the information is so concentrated," said Vickery.
Such a database would be a veritable treasure trove for criminals seeking an assortment of targets for a variety of fraud schemes, as well as stalkers or trolls looking to publish private information on an online forum.
Vickery has been unable to identify who controls the database or determine whether others had accessed the database, but said he is working with U.S. federal authorities to have it removed from view, according to Reuters.
A representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to comment, while a representative with the U.S. Federal Elections Commission, which regulates campaign financing, said the agency has no jurisdiction over protecting voter records.
Jeff Chester, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Digital Democracy, found Vickery's findings troubling.
"Privacy regulations are required so a person's political information can be kept private and safe," he said.
While Jim Gilliam CEO of NationBuilder, a campaign software provider who was initially believed to be responsible for the leak since it included data codes similar to those used by the firm, downplayed the findings.
"From what we've seen, the voter information included is already publicly available from each state government, so no new or private information was released in this database," he said, adding that some of the database's information may have come from data it freely supplies to political campaigns.
