Records of Over 35 Million US Voters Available Online For Sale
- An advertisement on an online forum claims to have hold of personal data of over 35 million US citizens.
- Their personal records are available for sale which includes voting history and other identifiable information.
- Overall 20 states have been affected, and the data has been verified to be valid.
With online security being a major topic for debate, yet another large-scale data breach has been uncovered. Soon after it was revealed that the Department of Defense had been affected by a data breach, over 35 million US voters have their data available for sale online in a forum.
The seller claims to have access to data belonging to 3 million voters from Louisiana, 6 million voters from Wisconsin and 14 million from Texas. Seventeen other states have also been affected but to a lesser extent. The data is available for varying prices ranging from $1,300 to $12,500 depending on how many lists a customer wants to buy.
Image Courtesy of Anomali Labs
According to a report by Anomali Labs, "Certain states require the seller to personally travel to locations in-state to receive the updated voter information. This suggests the information disclosure is not necessarily a technical compromise but rather a likely targeted campaign by a threat actor redistributing possibly legitimately obtained voter data for malicious purposes on a cybercrime forum”.
It also seems like there are a large number of interested buyers who are willing to buy the voters database. At least two users have expressed interest in the data and claim they are ready to pay the asking price. The data breach prices are relatively low according to analysts compared to similar incidents in the future. Some online forum members have also rallied to set up funds to be able to buy the registration databases.
The crowdfunding campaigns seek to publish the data breach lists publicly to prevent, and so far, only the Kansas database has been acquired and published online by financial backers. The next state on the list is Oregon, and if the campaign manages to publish all of the databases, the cybercriminals behind the breach will no longer be able to profit from the sale of data long-term.
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