This is what one of the voter records looks like. Not much. But why the newspaper would keep this stuff is curious.
Posted on 02/08/2018 2:16:36 PM PST by MeganC
Last month, a local California newspaper left more than 19 million voter records exposed online. Gizmodo confirmed this week that the records were compromised during an apparent ransomware attack.
The Sacramento Bee said in a statement that a firewall protecting its database was not restored during routine maintenance last month, leaving the 19,501,258 voter files publicly accessible. Additionally, the names, home addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of 52,873 Sacramento Bee subscribers were compromised.
“We take this incident seriously and have begun efforts to notify each of the individuals on the contact list and to provide them resources to help guard against potential misuse of their personal contact information,” the paper said in a statement. “We are also working with the Secretary of State’s office to share with them the details of this intrusion.”
The Kromtech Security Center first discovered the data on January 31st and reviewed records from several of the exposed databases before determining who owned the data. Kromtech reached out immediately to multiple employees in the Bee’s IT department but received no response.
Gizmodo was notified about the breach on February 2nd and reached out to an executive editor at the Bee. Our email was not returned. After emailing two other members of the Bee’s editorial board on Monday—including Gary Wortel, the paper’s president and publisher—Gizmodo was contacted by a public relations director at The McClatchy Company, the Bee’s owner.
A McClatchy spokesperson said the executive editor first contacted by Gizmodo had left the paper day our email was sent.
McClatchy provided an initial statement on Tuesday, saying it had “strict protocols in place to ensure the security of our data” and that it was “aware of a ransomware attack on one of our servers that was located outside our core IT structure.” The spokesperson added: “We know that in databases apparently targeted, no personally identifiable information, as defined by the State of California, was involved.”
Below is a sample of a leaked voter record, with personal information redacted. It contains the voter’s name, phone number, address, gender, date of birth, political affiliation, among other election-related details.
(More at the link)
It was MEANT to be hacked!!! That;s why they put it all out there!
I cannot think of a legitimate or legal reason.
Hypothetical bad reasons?
Sharing with labor union political villains comes to mind. Others?
taking down a firewall to run “routine maintenance”?
does NOT pass the smell test.
they could easily cross check the voting records with citizen ship records to find out how many illegals were voting.
Actually, voter records are a matter of public record and available to the public from the Election office for a modest fee. The requirements may vary somewhat from state to state, but it’s generally available. It does not contain social security numbers or other confidential data.
My question exactly.
Telephone poll would be my guess, if they want language, phone number, party, and precinct. That information is also salable if you have enough of it.
“Maybe we can find out how many non-citizens voted in California.”
Don’t forget the legions of metabolically challenged Democrat voters who currently reside in graveyards!
Good Grief, these are the people who want to be in charge of your healthcare.
You nailed it! The Sac Bee is just as bad, if not worse than the San Fran Comicle. Both lib rags!
Q will have a post about that in the next 24 hours...
Calif voter scam
Beware a new Seth Rich-type botched robbery.
I wonder how many of these voter records are of illegal aliens? President Trump could do quite a lot w/that information.
Voter records are public data. You only need to pay a fee to get access.
Time to cross reference the list with the ICE database and open warrants.
They have been keeping it a secret rather than notifying the millions compromised.
I checked all the Sacramento news media, including the Bee...and nada. Zilch.
Silence.
And I’m pretty damn sure that’s a violation of law.
If the Bee has the records then how are they considered “private”?
“I’ll bet R voters in CA start getting tires slashed, brick through windows, or worse.”
As a registered Republican in the city of Sacramento, I’ll let everyone know if I have to shoot somebody.
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