Voting records of Illinois residents exposed by contractor’s unsecured database

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — The personal information of millions of Illinois residents, including those in Boone, DeKalb, Ogle, and Winnebago counties, were exposed in an unsecured database in July.

According to Capitol News Illinois , security researcher Jeremiah Fowler identified the vulnerability, saying voting records, registration, death records, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and addresses of 4.6 million people were temporarily available on the open internet.

The records were identified from dozens of Illinois counties, including Alexander, Boone, Champaign, DeKalb, Effingham, Gallatin, Hamilton, Henry, Jefferson, Ogle, Pike, Sangamon, St. Clair, Williamson, and Winnebago.

“I’ve found voter databases in the past, so I kind of know if it’s a low-level marketing outreach database that someone has purchased,” Fowler told WIRED . “But here I saw voter applications— there were actually scans of documents, and then screenshots of online applications. I saw voter rolls for active voters, absentee voters with email addresses, some of them military email addresses. And when I saw Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers and death certificates I was like, ‘OK, those shouldn’t be there.’”

Fowler said he identified 15 unsecured databases before contacting county clerks and a technology vendor, Platinum Technology Resource, who supplies services to those counties.

Capitol News reported that all county clerks, with the exception of one in Alexander County, responded saying they had been in contact with Platinum about the issue. The county clerk in Alexander County reportedly said they were not affected.

“We have evidence of a claim the file storage containing voter registration documents may have been scanned,” the company wrote to affected counties in early August. “The containers are securely segregated from the overall system, which we can assure you has not been scanned or accessed.”

After it was notified, the Illinois State Board of Elections alerted all county clerks on July 19th.

It is unknown if anyone other than Fowler accessed the data.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about naming and shaming contractors,” Fowler said. “Every company does the best they can. It’s about identifying, strengthening the system and learning from it.”

Winnebago County Clerk Lori Gummow told Capitol News that she had notified the State’s Attorney and county board members, and Platinum had assured her it had “high confidence’ that the county’s records had not been accessed.

Experts say the most effective action you can take to guard against identity theft is to freeze your credit files at the three major credit bureaus: Experian , Equifax and TransUnion . That will prevent others from signing up for credit cards or opening other financial accounts in your name.

But if you want to apply for something requiring a credit check, you must lift the freeze.

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