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)
And I’ll bet the Sacramento Bee claims that the Russians didn’t get those classified emails from Mrs. Bill Clinton’s unsecured server.
Time to sue. The Sac Bee is a Dem propaganda piece anyways.
What the hell was a newspaper doing with sensitive voter information?! Oh, that’s right. The government’s paid agents.
WTH>>>>????
Why does a commercial outfit, a for profit newspaper have the voter records? If they can have it, why can’t i?
Buh bye Sac Bee....
So did the Russian hack the state and deliver those 19.5 Million California Voter Records.
How in hell did the left wing Sac Bee end up with our voting records?
They would have gun permit holders if they could.
If this is not public information (and it probably should not be), what is a newspaper doing with it?
I’ll bet R voters in CA start getting tires slashed, brick through windows, or worse.
Maybe we can find out how many non-citizens voted in California.
GMTA.
That was my first reaction.
That’s what needs to be investigated. I’m more concerned about the SacBee having this info than some supposed hacker. In fact, crap like this makes me wonder if “hackers” are just a cover for things that the media are doing.
Maybe we can find out how many non-citizens voted in California.
What the hell was a newspaper doing with sensitive voter information?! Oh, that’s right. The government’s paid agents for the Deep State.
Attkisson: Journalists “Begging” Not To Be Told About Surveillance Abuses: “Propagandists” In Newsrooms.
GrampaDave: The Fakenews Whores are paid by the Deep State to be Propagandists not journalists!
So let me get this straight... The SacBee released the 19 million plus records that are available to the public??? Voter information is available to the public with a records request.
As previous commenters have noted, there’s no reason for a local newspaper (or any newspaper) to have a database of voter registration records. I wonder why Gizmodo didn’t mention that fact in the article.
Typical California mess. I lived there 40 years, love the state as a place, but hate the politics with a passion.
So what is the Sac Bee doing with 19 million voting records anyway?
According to the article, they were warned about this and did nothing. I think it was intentional.
They took their firewall down for "routine maintenance" - why? - and never checked to see that it was back up? For how long?
I have long felt that like doctors and lawyers, IT staff should be subject to malpractice standards. Or floggings. Or both.
Were any of the records of legal voters?
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