2.4 Million Ontario Voters' Private Info Compromised 81
An anonymous reader writes "Elections Ontario, an agency tasked with the organization and conduct of general elections and by-elections in Canada's Ontario region, is warning voters about the loss and potential theft of two USB sticks containing private information of 2.4 million voters from approximately 20–25 electoral districts. The information at issue is limited to full name, gender, birth date, address, whether or not an elector voted in the last provincial election and any other personal information updates provided by voters to Elections Ontario during that time, as well as administrative codes used solely for election purposes. The information does not include how an individual voted."
Ontario region? (Score:4, Informative)
FYI, Ontario is a province. net-security.org should appreciate the value of precision, and /. editors need to edit.
Sincerely, an Ontarian. (Yes, that's a word.)
Re:So what? (Score:4, Informative)
If you've ever seen the way Canadian elections are handled, you'd know just how difficult that is to do. The steps involve a non-neutral representative from each party watching the ballot box, along with multiple neutral elections Canada employees watching it. All these people must be present whenever a vote is cast into the box, or if the box is moved (in my case, I had to walk to the hallway as a disabled person wished to vote and there were stairs leading to the voting area). All votes themselves are done completely secretly.
The box is opened with all these people watching and every single vote is counted aloud and all representatives may complain if they see a vote they aren't happy with (not marked properly, forged, stuffed box, etc). We all get to watch each voter enter and get crossed off the list as they vote. The number of votes much match what we all saw. Once the votes are tallied (or someone complains from the group about a vote) a special cellphone only to be used for the election is used on speakerphone to call in the results in front of all of us.
The box is then taped up with special security tape and driven directly to a secure storage location.
The only way to have any tampering would be for all involved parties to be corrupt. That would be odd co-operation since all involved parties (other than Elections Canada) don't like each other.