UK's electoral register hacked

[Louis Balfour]

And once they found out, the authorities only took ten short months to let everyone know.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66441010

[s1962a]

Is it the complete register that got hacked? So basically all our personal details. aholes.

[TonyRPH]

The amount of data exposed here is shocking. And the hackers had access to their systems for over a year!!

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/privacy-pol...

This is quite far reaching IMHO

Personal data affected by this incident:

Personal data contained in email system of the Commission:

Name, first name and surname.
Email addresses (personal and/or business).
Home address if included in a webform or email.
Contact telephone number (personal and/or business).
Content of the webform and email that may contain personal data.
Any personal images sent to the Commission.
Personal data contained in Electoral Register entries:
Name, first name and surname
Home address in register entries
Date on which a person achieves voting age that year.

Electoral Register data not held by the Commission:

[/b]Anonymous registrations[b]

Address of overseas electors registered outside of the UK.

[Chimune]

Chap on r4 at 1pm today:

The data leaked is the electoral roll register - which is publicly available anyway.

But it also contains the details of those who opted out of the public register. Thats vaulable and previously non-public data.

[wombleh]

“The watchdog has warned people to watch out for unauthorised use of their data.”

Not sure that’s particular straight forward!

Edited by wombleh on Tuesday 8th August 17:01

[i4got]

Chimune said:

Chap on r4 at 1pm today:

...

But it also contains the details of those who opted out of the public register. Thats vaulable and previously non-public data.

Non public - but is available at a cost to pretty much any company that wants it.

[Southerner]

Louis Balfour said:

And once they found out, the authorities only took ten short months to let everyone know.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66441010

Prosecutions/action? Na, course not

[Gareth79]

Chimune said:

Chap on r4 at 1pm today:

The data leaked is the electoral roll register - which is publicly available anyway.

But it also contains the details of those who opted out of the public register. Thats vaulable and previously non-public data.

The publicly available register is still not public/open data, you can't (as far as I know) download it freely, you need to pay a fair few £.

i4got said:

Chimune said:

Chap on r4 at 1pm today:

...

But it also contains the details of those who opted out of the public register. Thats vaulable and previously non-public data.

Non public - but is available at a cost to pretty much any company that wants it.

I thought it was only available to bona fide credit reference and fraud checking organisations?

[sugerbear]

I am sure that a company like Cambridge Analytics would never dream of using this data to swing an election in 2024/2025.

Never.

[turbobloke]

sugerbear said:

I am sure that a company like Cambridge Analytics would never dream of using this data to swing an election in 2024/2025.

Never.

Starmer's not that desperate yet, surely.

[Biggy Stardust]

Southerner said:

Prosecutions/action? Na, course not

You misunderstand: lessons will be learned.

[Southerner]

‘No win, no fee’ class action to be expected in a few years’ time?! I bloody hope so!

[bitchstewie]

Unless I've misunderstood and assuming you haven't literally sent them specific personal information it reads as if the stuff taken is fairly low level info like name and address.

[E63eeeeee...]

Southerner said:

Louis Balfour said:

And once they found out, the authorities only took ten short months to let everyone know.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66441010

Prosecutions/action? Na, course not

Who do you want to prosecute? The organisation that's been broken into? That's like prosecuting a bank for being robbed.

[bigpriest]

E63eeeeee... said:

Southerner said:

Louis Balfour said:

And once they found out, the authorities only took ten short months to let everyone know.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66441010

Prosecutions/action? Na, course not

Who do you want to prosecute? The organisation that's been broken into? That's like prosecuting a bank for being robbed.

If the bank fitted a front door they bought cheap from a bloke down the pub then yes.

[untakenname]

4% of turnover is the maximum fine for private companies, imo the heads of the electoral commision should have to answer as it has eroded trust by the electorate and thus threatens the cornerstone of democracy.

[E63eeeeee...]

bigpriest said:

E63eeeeee... said:

Southerner said:

Louis Balfour said:

And once they found out, the authorities only took ten short months to let everyone know.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66441010

Prosecutions/action? Na, course not

Who do you want to prosecute? The organisation that's been broken into? That's like prosecuting a bank for being robbed.

If the bank fitted a front door they bought cheap from a bloke down the pub then yes.

I'm not sure many banks get robbed by people knocking down the front door. Either way, I can't tell from the article if that's a plausible analogy for what happened here. Do you know more about this?

[wombleh]

ICO has decided that instead of fining govt organisations, they’ll just write them a nasty letter telling them how much they would have been fined:
https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news...

From reading the ICO court cases, private sector gets nailed to the wall for any divergence from a very strict (and arguably unrealistic) view of how security should be done. So yes they could take action against the victims, in theory only if negligent, but in reality most orgs could get fined if they leaked PII

Edited by wombleh on Tuesday 8th August 19:04

[Gareth79]

bhstewie said:

Unless I've misunderstood and assuming you haven't literally sent them specific personal information it reads as if the stuff taken is fairly low level info like name and address.

It's fairly low level, but it's a comprehensive and up-to-date list of almost every adult in the UK, grouped by specific address (ie. people who live with each other). I don't think there has been such a huge leak of such accurate/official data before in the UK.

For example a person with the database would instantly and immediately know the names of people living in, for example, the St George's Hill estate.

[Grumps.]

Can’t say I’m bothered, considering it’s all out there anyway in one form or another.