News Insights: Voter details for millions of Americans found on Russian hacking site: Report

News Insights:

Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate with Comparitech:

“It’s remarkably easy to get one’s hands on voter databases in most states. Many of them are available to the public, including Michigan. Even though there are rules about how the data can be used, rules can be broken. Those who legitimately request receive voter data are responsible for securing it, and not everyone has the same standards of security. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more voter databases in the hands of foreign threat actors before the 2020 general election.”

Chris Hauk, consumer privacy champion at Pixel Privacy:

“As is usual in cases like these, victims (registered voters) will need to be on the lookout for bad actors attempting to use the information gleaned from these databases to obtain even more information about their targets. It is sad to believe that in this day and age that simply registering to exercise your right to vote can make you the target of hackers.”