Data Firm Accidentally Leaks Personal Info of Nearly 200 Million American Voters

Republican Party contractor left sensitive data about voters on an unsecured server.

June 19, 2017 1:39 pm
Voter data leak
Residents of El Paso, Texas cast their ballot for president of the United States in early voting, October 23, 2000. The state of Texas has early voting that must be conducted for all elections. In most elections, early voting by personal appearance begins on the 17th day before Election Day and ends on the 4th day before Election Day. Joe Raedle/Newsmakers)

You might be part of the nation’s largest-ever voter information data breach.

The Republican National Committee accidentally leaked personal information belonging to 198 million Americans by Deep Root Analytics, a data firm contracted by the Republican Party said on Monday. It may be the largest leak of voter info in American history.

Information about registered voters dating back more than a decade was exposed to anyone that knew where to find it when it uploaded to a server without password protection.

The exposed database contained personal information on about 61 percent of the U.S. population. It included birth dates, contact information, as well as psychometric data regarding opinions on issues like gun control and reproductive rights.

According to The Hill, Deep Root Analytics uploaded 25 terabytes of data to the exposed server and made 1.1 terabytes of that available to download.

The unprotected server was first noticed by researcher Chris Vickery, a researcher for of cybersecurity firm UpGuard, who notified the RNC. The exposed data was secured last week before informing the public.

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