Detailed information on almost all American voters was left exposed online for two weeks by consultants that work for the Republican National Committee and other Republican clients, The Washington Post reported Monday.
The info included, in some cases, their ethnicity, religion and political views, according to the Post. It was exposed online for two weeks.
Recommended Videos
Cyber-security researcher Chris Vickery told the paper that the data offered a nearly complete picture of voter histories in a downloadable format. Vickery said he found unprotected files of as many as 198 million voters. He told the Post that he alerted law enforcement officials.
Some data included which voters are suspicious of Wall Street, or who reluctantly voted for Hillary Clinton or supports Obamacare, he said.
“They’re using this information to create political dossiers on individuals that are now available for anyone,” Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, told The Washington Post. “These political data firms might as well be working for the Russians.”
The files do include Social Security or credit card information, the Post reported.
The Post said Amazon Web Services would not comment on the problem.