Data of 198 million Americans has been exposed in an unsecured cloud server. The data, compiled by
Deep Root Analytics - a marketing company contracted by the Republican National Committee (RNC) - includes voters’ addresses and phone numbers. The finding comes in the wake of heavy criticism of the Democrat party for not securing information on DNC servers on the run up to the last US election.
The issue was discovered by Chris Vickery, a cyber security researcher with the company UpGuard, who suggested the data was hosted on an AWS server. It has been reported that access to the information did not require any passwords. There is no indication whether the data was breached beyond its discovery by Mr. Vickery.
Since the discovery Deep Root Analytics has enhanced the data’s security by updating access controls. “Since this event has come to our attention, we have updated the access settings and put protocols in place to prevent further access. We take full responsibility for this situation,” suggested a statement on the company’s website.
“We are conducting an internal review and have retained cyber security firm Stroz Friedberg to conduct a thorough investigation. Through this process, which is currently underway, we have learned that access was gained through a recent change in access settings since June 1. We accept full responsibility, will continue with our investigation, and based on the information we have gathered thus far, we do not believe that our systems have been hacked,” the statement concluded.
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