Unprotected Database Exposes Details of 93.4 Million Mexican Voters
Catalin Cimpanu - Softpedia
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April 22, 2016
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Massive Data Breach of Mexican Voter Data (MacKeeperTV)

The details of 93,424,710 Mexican voters were exposed online via an unprotected MongoDB database that had no admin password and was easily reachable via a public IP address.

MacKeeper security researcher Chris Vickery discovered the database on April 14, running on an Amazon AWS cloud server. Soon after he identified the data and realized what he was looking at, the researcher contacted the US State Department and later the State Department’s Office of Mexican Affairs.

After receiving no response, the researcher then contacted the US Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, US-CERT, Amazon, and the Mexican embassy in the US.

Eight days later, Mexico's Instituto Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Institute) (IFE) reached out to Mr. Vickery, thanked him for his efforts, and also informed him they secured the database.

IFE representatives told DataBreaches.net that the IP on which the server was running was not one of their own, that the database's total statistics did not match their own numbers, and that they'd start an investigation to see how the data ended up on a US-based Amazon server.

Mexican law prohibits companies from moving sensitive data of Mexican citizens across the border. The maximum penalty is six years in prison.

Read the rest at Softpedia

Related: How a Hacker Found the Personal Information of All Mexican Voters (Motherboard)

Related: Mexican Voter Breach Another in a Recent String of Election Hacks (Bureau of National Affairs)

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