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."
What is this info doing on USB-sticks? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What is this info doing on USB-sticks? (Score:3, Insightful)
moving data between computers. Not everyone knows how to do network sharing. they may also physically mail the encrypted USB sticks to people (or pass them around) for whatever reason. Ontario is a big place, and we've got about 13 million people over a large area, so there might be a lot of data moved around snail mail style by people who for whatever reason aren't linked up to a the central physical database.
They may also have data for static analysis. The 'real' data might be updated constantly as people change addresses and so on, which is fine, but if you want to analyze voting patterns, say related to a investigation of robocalling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocall_scandal), you need the data preserved as it applied to a particular point in time.
Encryption (Score:4, Insightful)
People think I'm paranoid because I encrypt all my drives... but when I lose a disk I never have to wonder if it potentially ended up in the wrong hands. Too bad it's only done by us loonies and not as standard practice everywhere.
Well, I'm Probably On The List (Score:4, Insightful)
So congratulations to the thief (or finder) for now knowing my birthday and former address.
can only be accessed and read by... (Score:4, Insightful)
...and the thieves, once they (quickly) figure out how the fields are arranged and stored.