According to cyber security firm Upguard, almost all of America’s 200 million registered voters have been exposed. The database contains the Personal Information of all registered voters in the United States. A Republican data analysis firm, known as Deep Root Analytics was responsible for the leak, the report said.
Exposed voters data
According to Yahoo News, the personal information in the breach includes voter’s birth dates, first and last names, phone numbers, mailing and home addresses, registered party, racial demography and voter registration status.
A spokesman for Deep Roots Analytics said in an email to HuffPost that the "company takes full responsibility for the leaks after confirming the breach."
Chris Vickery Risky Analyst for UpGuard Cyber said they found online files and have duly notified federal agencies about the leak. However, Deep Root said it was carrying out a comprehensive review of the errors. The lapses occurred between June 1and June 14, during which time only Vickery was able to access the database.
The majority of the data originated from external sources and the Republican super-Political Action Committee, not with Deep Root itself.
Many companies contributed to the breach
A report by UpGuard stated that the super-PAC Republican strategist Karl Rove, American Crossroad and Data Trust may have contributed some data. Data Trust is responsible for the development and enhancement of Republican and conservative voter file compilation and storage. The report also said a large cache of text emanated from Reddit.
In January of 2016, Vickery discovered a large database of over 56 million records that seemed to belong to a Christian organization.The discovery included names and addresses, income and financial status of individuals, etc. The income levels indicated whether they were politically conservative, where they worked and whether they donated to religious bodies.
Lapses in database management
Vickery also found large database voter records of about 191 million that did not indicate the owner.
According to UpGuard, the latest lapses in its data storage also covered data breaches in many other countries which include a database of about 93.4 million Mexican registered voters and roughly 55 million registered voters in the Philippines. The breaches for both countries occurred in April 2016, the report said.
About 9.5 data points were used by Vickery to describe 198 million US voters in 48 different categories. The categories cut across all major political spectrums.