Data on millions of US voters is being illegally traded on the dark web as the US is gearing up for the 2020 presidential election. The data could be used to attempt to influence voters.
The dark web is a part of the internet not searchable using normal means. It is encrypted and聽visible only through specialist web browsers that anonymise data transfers, and it is a thriving marketplace for illicit material.
Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro has analysed 600 dark web forums dealing in underground trading. The firm found that databases of US voter information, containing names, addresses and political affiliations, could be bought for聽$9.99 or less 鈥� a fraction of the聽going rate on the dark web of聽$26 for 1000 fake YouTube likes, which some people buy to boost their popularity on the video site.
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Voter information is cheaper because clicking YouTube鈥檚 like button requires a human or a bot, which cost money, says Mayra Rosario Fuentes at Trend Micro, and voter databases age and depreciate in value.
Information from other nations can cost more 鈥� the highest price Trend Micro saw was $400 for a Turkish voter database. That is because, unlike the US, most countries don鈥檛 publicly publish information about their voters.
鈥淚n the US, some of this information is available for free at a state-wide level,鈥� says Rosario Fuentes. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 harder to obtain the information, they鈥檙e going to charge more.鈥�
Access to US voter registration lists . Generally, political parties can view redacted versions of the lists for free, but other organisations or individuals must pay a fee or visit a local government office in person. That can make buying an electronic version on the dark web attractive.
There have been a number of high-profile hacks of voter data. In聽2017, more than a terabyte of voter data, covering 62 per cent of the US population, was taken from an unsecured server operated by a聽firm called Deep Root Analytics. Rosario Fuentes says this data is聽being sold on the dark web. Deep聽Root Analytics declined to聽comment for this article.
The Philippines鈥檚 election commission and the Turkish government both had voter data breaches of around 50 million individuals each in 2016, and this聽data is also being traded, according to Trend Micro. The聽Philippines鈥檚 election commission and Turkey鈥檚 justice department didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment.
鈥淐itizens are worried that their country鈥檚 election can be interfered with,鈥� says Rosario Fuentes. Recent votes, including the 2016 US presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum, have seen accusations of interference through the use of bots and other聽social media exploits.
The data being traded on the dark web could be used for this purpose. 鈥淚f you have a database where you can in some way infer the ideology of someone, carrying out a disinformation campaign would be easier,鈥� says Yevgeniy Golovchenko at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
