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Downloadable data from most of the US electorate was left unprotected for weeks and available on the internet.
Chris Vickery, cyber security professional discovered the files which stated the voting histories and political leanings of 198 million US civilians and reported it to officials.
Mr Vickery also uploaded a stream of consciousness on his findings on his twitter account:
The amount of data that Mr Vickery was able to find highlights the depth of data mining currently acceptable in elections, and the risk that poses to national security. Other reports on the incident say that the data included multiple fields of interest on individual Republican, Democrat and Independent voters. And, in some cases individual’s opinions on as much as 46 policy issues had been recorded. A total of 1.1 terabytes of data was discovered.
According to current reports, the main company who was responsible for managing the data was DeepRoot Analytics with at least two other contracted organisations involved, who were storing the data on behalf of the Republican National Committee. DeepRoot Analytics are launching a full enquiry into how it happened, and admitted that files within their online storage system had been accessed without the best of their knowledge.
The risk of this information getting in the wrong hands before the election, or how it was used during is a separate issue.
What is certain is that this information was primarily used by the Republican party during major campaigns for the most recent US election. It marks a point in politics where those with the biggest pockets and the most data analysts are able to make the smartest decisions.
Additionally, Mr Vickery commented on his personal twitter that:
Could this be true? Only time will tell but it certainly tells a cautionary tale.
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