Hundreds of people have ‘top secret’ permission ‘House Democrats’ website reveals’
It’s personal Details of more than 450 people holding “top secret” US government security were left online, a new study shows. People’s information is included in the database of more than 7,000 people who have applied for jobs in the last two years with the Democrats in the United States House of Representatives.
While scanning unsecured databases at the end of September, a behavioral security researcher stumbled upon an exposed cache of data and discovered that it was part of a site called DomeWatch. This service is run by House Democrats and features videos including the Job Board and Résumé Bank.
After the researcher tried to inform the House of Representatives on September 30th, the information was received within hours, and the researcher received a response that said, “thank you for your response.” It’s unclear how long the data is exposed or if anyone else gets access to the information while they’re unprotected.
An independent researcher, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the findings, matched the disclosed details of an internal “Index” of people who are likely to apply for open roles. They weren’t included, they said, but the database contained general information about the job application process. The researcher found information including brief written history requests and fields indicating military supply, security clearance, and languages spoken, as well as information such as names, phone numbers and email addresses. Each person was also assigned an internal ID.
“Some of the people described in that data have spent 20 years on Capitol Hill,” the researcher told Violent, noting that the information went beyond the list of interns or junior staff. This is what made it so find, the researcher says, Because they fear that if the information falls into the wrong hands – maybe those of the situation of a violent year or brutal discouragers – it may be used to compromise the government or military personnel who have access to possible information. “From an external adversary’s point of view, that’s a gold mine of how you want to target it,” the security researcher said.
A cable reached out to the Executive Director’s office and House Democrats for comment. Some of the affected employees were contacted and could not be reached because they have woken up due to the ongoing US government shutdown.
“Today, our office was notified of a potential outside seller of information stored on an internal site,” said spokeswoman for internal affairs Katherine Clark, according to a statement from Clark’s office. “We immediately notified the office of the chief executive officer, and a thorough investigation was launched to identify and correct any security risks.” Lee added that the third-party vendor is an “independent backend consultant” for DomeWatch.
