Midterms 2018: An incredible number of voting records available on dark web before US elections

A huge database containing the voting records of around 35 million US citizens has been discovered on the dark web, just weeks ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

Researchers from US-based cyber security firms Anomali Labs and Intel 471 discovered the huge cache on the dark web – an invisible area of the net used by cyber criminals.

The records, posted to a popular hacking forum, included personally identifiable information such as the voters’full names, telephone numbers, physical addresses and voting history.The researchers noted that the records did not necessarily originate from a hack, but alternatively has been obtained by somebody who has legitimate usage of the databases, such as a government official.

“To the knowledge, this represented the first reference on the criminal underground of actors selling or distributing lists of 2018 voter registration data, including US voters’personally identifiable information and voting history, ” they stated in a report.

“With the November 2018 midterm elections only one month away, the availability and currency of the voter records, if coupled with other breached data, could possibly be used by malicious actors to disrupt the electoral procedure for pursue large-scale identity theft.”

Ways in that the data could be properly used to disrupt the elections include deleting voting registrations, changing voters’addresses, or requesting absentee ballots with respect to the legitimate voter.

The voting records originate from at least 19 US states, including: Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The price for the data of each voter list varies from $150 to $12, 500 with regards to the state, the researchers said.