The databases sold contain very detailed information on citizens, including political affiliation.
“In its election investigation, the Trustwave SpiderLabs team uncovered huge databases of detailed information on US voters and consumers. The company noted that the user data was found on several hacker forums at once, and the databases provide "shocking" detailed information, including data on the political affiliation of US citizens.
These "information vendors" claim that the database contains 186 million items. And, if this is really the case, the information of almost all citizens of the country may end up in the hands of attackers.
The company speculates that these records could be used for fraud and potential influence on the presidential election.
NBC News notes that most of the data is in the public domain and sounds like information that legitimate businesses buy and sell. However, the TV channel emphasizes: it is the amount of data available for implementation on the shadow Internet that shows how easily attackers can get and use this information for their own purposes.
“In its election investigation, the Trustwave SpiderLabs team uncovered huge databases of detailed information on US voters and consumers. The company noted that the user data was found on several hacker forums at once, and the databases provide "shocking" detailed information, including data on the political affiliation of US citizens.
These "information vendors" claim that the database contains 186 million items. And, if this is really the case, the information of almost all citizens of the country may end up in the hands of attackers.
The company speculates that these records could be used for fraud and potential influence on the presidential election.
NBC News notes that most of the data is in the public domain and sounds like information that legitimate businesses buy and sell. However, the TV channel emphasizes: it is the amount of data available for implementation on the shadow Internet that shows how easily attackers can get and use this information for their own purposes.