Posted on 12/18/2015 5:13:14 AM PST by Wolfie
Sanders campaign suspended over Clinton data
Staffer accessed Clinton data when firewall briefly dropped
The Democratic National Committee has suspended Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign from accessing its voter database after the campaign took advantage of a software error to access Hillary Clinton's confidential voter information.
The suspension is a setback for the Vermont senator because the database is a goldmine of information about voters nationwide. Campaigns usually use that data to plot their next moves.
The DNC database keeps the information gathered by different campaigns separated by a firewall.
But the data systems vendor that runs the program dropped the firewall for a brief period Wednesday, during which time the data was accessed.
The Washington Post was the first to report the incident.
According to the Sanders team, one staffer has been fired.
"That behavior is unacceptable and that staffer was fired immediately," Sanders' spokesman Michael Briggs said.
A blow to the campaign
The New York Times said the staffer was the campaign data director. Searches were run from four user accounts while data from Clinton's campaign was exposed, the Times said. But it's difficult to say what that means, since one person could have had more than one user account.
The Sanders campaign will remain suspended until it provides the DNC with a full explanation of the episode and provides proof that any accessed data has been discarded.
With the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries now less than two months away, this suspension will likely be an obstacle for the Sanders campaign.
According to DNC Communications Director Luis Miranda, the data systems vendor, NGP VAN, alerted the DNC about the issue Wednesday.
The vendor was instructed "to identify any users who accessed data, the actions they took in the system, and to report their findings to Party and affected campaigns."
The DNC is currently working with the campaigns and the vendor to more fully understand the extent of the breach and to "ensure that this isolated incident doesn't happen again."
Not the first time
Briggs, the Sanders spokesman, said this isn't the first time the firewall has failed.
"Our campaign months ago alerted the DNC to the fact that campaign data was being made available to other campaigns. At that time our campaign did not run to the media, relying instead on assurances from the vendor," he said.
"Unfortunately, yesterday, the vendor once again dropped the firewall between the campaigns for some data. After discussion with the DNC it became clear that one of our staffers accessed some modeling data from another campaign."
Anyone want to bet against that it was HILLARY-900FBI-files
who set this up, so that SHE could access other
campaign’s contributors?
Or a Hellary mole in the Bernie camp and this was a pre-arranged scheme to discredit him. The dirty Clintons are involved one way or another. How did they know when the firewalls went down and who/why did that happen?
Anyone smell a ‘Rat? Guess we now have to add a BernieGate to the mix. If this is from Hellary’s dirty doings please God let it be exposed to bright sunlight.
“But the data systems vendor that runs the program dropped the firewall for a brief period Wednesday, during which time the data was accessed. “
Deliberately done by the DNC.
He was ordered to drop the firewall.
Staffer (a mole) was then to access it and “get caught”. How the hell else would this all just happen so cleanly and at the right moment?
What staffer would do this and risk being charged with a crime?
Yep. Sanders must have been doing too well, had to be cut off at the knees.
Maybe Grandpa Bernie, as a socialist, just felt entitled to Clinton’s data, since he’s a member of the federal gov’t?
All part of the plan of the fake Bernie candidacy.
Bernie, stay away from Ft. Marcy Park!
How did Sanders know it was not supposed to be accessed when the wall came down? Was there a message that said, Sanders don’t go there?
Hillary needs some attention y’all. She’s being beaten up by a boy.
Unsecured server? Sounds so familiar! Why is the DNC acting so fast & shouldn’t there be an independent investigation?
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