Security researchers have discovered databases containing personal voter information from across America on illegal forums. This is a very worrying situation, considering that next month the US.
As revealed by security firm Trustwave, the discovered databases contain 186 million records, which correspond to almost all US.
In the 2016 elections, 126 million citizens voted, although this number was the lowest in the last 20 years and analysts expect this year's elections to bring record turnout.
The researchers who discovered the databases say they contain information such as names, addresses, age, gender, contact information and even political beliefs.
The database, which contained US voters, was originally discovered on RaidForums.com, a website that allows its members to sell and buy stolen data.
According to Trustwave, databases traditionally sell for up to a thousand dollars in bitcoin, but the seller of the voter database, known as GreenMoon2019, asked interested members to negotiate the price via direct message.
As discovered by analysis of a digital wallet belonging to GreenMoon2019, which was created in May, showed payments of over $100 million.
Trustwave also discovered from conversations among forum members that the stolen information was publicly available on NCSBE.gov. The company notified the organization, which insisted that the information available was only from public records.
While all data breaches can affect those whose information is exposed, the potential for harm is greater in the context of elections that are expected to be targeted by foreign countries. This week, for example, Iran was found responsible for a pro- Trumpdesigned to intimidate Florida voters.
According to Trustwave, malicious actors could use voter information to "conduct effective social engineering scams and spread misinformation to potentially influence elections, particularly in cases of indecision."
