Trump voter-fraud panel's data request a gold mine for hackers, experts warn

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico




By ERIC GELLER and CORY BENNETT 07/01/2017 01:00 PM EDT

Cybersecurity specialists are warning that President Donald Trump’s voter-fraud commission may unintentionally expose voter data to even more hacking and digital manipulation.

Their concerns stem from a letter the commission sent to every state this week, asking for full voter rolls and vowing to make the information “available to the public.” The requested information includes full names, addresses, birth dates, political party and, most notably, the last four digits of Social Security numbers. The commission is also seeking data such as voter history, felony convictions and military service records.

Digital security experts say the commission’s request would centralize and lay bare a valuable cache of information that cyber criminals could use for identity theft scams — or that foreign spies could leverage for disinformation schemes.

“It is beyond stupid,” said Nicholas Weaver, a computer science professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “The bigger the purse, the more effort folks would spend to get at it,” said Joe Hall, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital advocacy group. “And in this case, this is such a high-profile and not-so-competent tech operation that we're likely to see the hacktivists and pranksters take shots at it.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/01/trump-voter-fraud-panel-hackers-240168

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. The return email address on that request for voter rolls is kremlin.ru. . . . nt

[RKP5637]

2. We're in fool-blown Idiocracy!!! n/t

[sandensea]

3. A dream come true for any third world despot.

Such rolls could - and surely would - be used to not only alter registration data so as to make certain (i.e. democratic) voters ineligible to vote; but also to be passed on to employers and authorities at will in order to harass said voters.

[stephensolomita]

4. Ultimate Goal

Ultimately, Trump, Bannon and the rest of the gang hope to undermine the American voters' faith in free and fair elections. Remember, Russia and China have regular elections.

[turbinetree]

5. Since the Election Commissioner of Maryland is trying to find out what the state AG

wants to do, to all the citizens in Maryland, I think its time to call her office and the AG's office starting this Monday, this is a privacy issue........................end of story, and just like this piece says this is a cyber security issue BIG TIME.

This guy's minions are still trying to over turn the popular vote , it can't happen,and any state giving this information needs to be sued, under the Constitution, MVA, this is outrageous.
These right wingers always going around and say state rights, well this upsurp's that criteria

[NastyRiffraff]

10. I've already emailed MD's SoS

And will follow up with a phone call on Monday, but will also call the Election Commissioner and the AG. Maryland is a liberal state; I'm upset that our officials are dragging their feet on this.

[turbinetree]

18. I got a letter from today from van Hollen and asked him what he was going to do

and this coming Monday I am going to send a letter ( email) to the State Elections official and then AG and say hey why?
How much voter fraud is in the state?

[pnwmom]

6. INTENTIONALLY, not "unintentionally." This is deliberate.

[SunSeeker]

7. Of course it is. That is why Trump is having Kobach ask for this personal data.

Putin wants the data!

[spiderpig]

8. Next step, "Papers, please".

This has got to stop.

[lark]

9. Accidentally or unintentionally, my ass.

He is doing this for the express purpose of providing one easy hackable database, the illegal voting claim is just a front. Why else would Kobach ask for this data from the states, knowing that it broke privacy rules in many of the states, including his own and could easily destroy our citizens' privacy even where it's not illegal. So he's asking for other states to share their information, but won't do it for his state, hmmm very suspicious.

[NastyRiffraff]

11. +1,000

At Dump's upcoming meeting with Putin: "Vlad! My man! Have I got a treat for you!"

[dalton99a]

12. Every Russian teenager knows what to do with an American's SSN

So many things you can open with the last four digits

[FakeNoose]

13. Once they know how someone votes they can deny that person's benefits or even citizenship

What if I'm collecting Medicare or Medicaid benefits and they find out I voted for Democrats.
How long will it take them to deny my benefits or even my voting rights? Or even my citizenship?

This is a DANGEROUS PRECEDENT that they've started, and we can't let it happen.
The red states have as much to lose as the blue states, so this goes beyond politics.

Every state Governor and Secretary of State should be sounding the alarm right now, and they should all refuse to turn over this data. It's a slippery slope and once they've given the data they can't ever go back. This needs to be examined in a court of law and I'm sure any federal judge would throw it out.

Luckily I live in Pennsylvania, and our Governor Tom Wolf has already replied that our voter registration data will not be turned over.

NO COMPLIANCE!

[keithbvadu2]

14. Would they be ok with giving it to all political parties? The Democrats, the Nazis, Russia, the Lib

Would they be ok with giving it to all political parties?

The Democrats, the Nazis, Russia, the Libertarians?

Well, if you give it to the Republicans, it's already going to the Nazis and Russia.

Yeah! Yeah! They have a legal right to it?

Should they?

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Trump acts like a mobster.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

16. It is beyond stupid, said Nicholas Weaver, a computer science professor at Berkeley. NT

The magic words re "need to know."

What is their need to know?

It doesn't matter how many stripes they have or how much longer they've been in then you have, but

"What is your need to know?"

[KT2000]

17. Mercers-Russia-Mercers-Russia

this is so incredibly stupid.

[Dave Starsky]

19. It is a data-mining deliverable for Vlad Putin.

Small wonder why they're leaning on this so hard just before his big date next week.

If it also helps suppress the vote, that's just icing on the cake.

[thinkingagain]

20. Why don't we say we want to get

All the full names addresses phone numbers birth date social security numbers
If they voted etc and of course party affiliation of our all reps ( including T ) and then make it public and then see if they still want to get voter rolls