
800Gb of possible Census Bureau data (tax records,etc) leaked. Check your data - teslademigod1
https://cybernews.com/security/report-unidentified-database-exposes-200-million-americans/
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etrk
It's asking for my email to check if my census data has been leaked? Email
isn't even shown as a field in the leaked records. Is this site just
harvesting emails?

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fyrefoxboy12
don't think it's a scam. forbes covered it
([https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/03/20/stunning-...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/03/20/stunning-
new-google-cloud-breach-hits-200-million-us-citizens-check-here-if-youre-now-
at-risk/#35eeee4d8587)) although more neutrally than this title

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trobertson
Are we really still using Forbes as evidence? Forbes is blogspam. I need a
much more credible source before handing over my email to this site.

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pedrocr
It's 800GB, not Gb. Original title has been replaced completely and used wrong
units. Original is "Report: unidentified database exposes 200 million
Americans" which is far more useful.

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Fiveplus
Why do people unnecessarily change titles like this?

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ghouse
While there could be census data, this is weak substantiation and feels more
like click-bait:

> It seems that much of the data on the main folder might have originated from
> the United States Census Bureau. Certain codes used in the database were
> either specific to the Bureau or used in the Bureau’s classifications.

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JaceLightning
> Enter your email to check

Uhhh this is definitely a scam

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Forge36
Agreed. I didn't enter my email during the census

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larrywright
Also, why would census data include a credit score?

This is fishy.

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NelsonMinar
This data sounds like it could have been someone's copy of the voter file, the
database political groups keep on every American who can vote. Versions of
that file have leaked before. There's some speculation some of the leaks have
been deliberate, to illegally avoid campaign finance laws.

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salawat
Got a link? That sounds like interesting reading. (The explanation of how
leaking a database of every voter's info helps exploit a loophole in campaign
finance law, I mean, not the data.)

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dccoolgai
I don't have a link, but here's how that would work: there are strict limits
(a few thousand per donor) on how much an official campaign can raise/spend.
Outside/independent groups have no such restrictions (see Citizens United) -
they could take a billion dollars from one donor and spend it all on behalf of
one candidate. But what good would the official restrictions be if the
campaigns could call the independents and say "buy a million dollars of ads
for me". So there are also strict laws about "coordination". You can probably
figure out the rest by yourself... But leaving the records in a place where
they are "available to the public" provides plausible deniability to the
coordination problem.

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haltingproblem
I am certain that this is a scam. After having worked extensively with Census
data there is no place, AFAIK, that the Census Bureau collates mortgage,
credit and tax data or has the capability to. The datasets listed here sit in
3 disparate organizations - IRS, private banks and credit bureaus. There
exists no mechanism to collate it in one place - you would need releases from
individuals to get the credit data. IRS data is almost impossible to get (cf:
DJT tax records). Finally, mortgage records are public but payment history
sits with the banks.

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jellicle
This doesn't have anything to do with the Census Bureau and isn't the current
title of the page. ??

Yes, marketers have excellent info on all Americans and sell it to anyone. No,
it doesn't have anything to do with the Census Bureau.

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maxminder
Techradar also posted about this leak [https://www.techradar.com/news/major-
data-breach-exposes-dat...](https://www.techradar.com/news/major-data-breach-
exposes-database-of-200-million-users)

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nullc
It's annoying to see these leak check things that don't actually show you what
specifically was leaked about you.

There are big differences in risk factors and reactions depending on what
specific data was available.

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maxerickson
Problem there is that making it easy for you to see info about you makes it a
lot easier for me to see the info about you.

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ibigb
Doesn't Google know who is using their services? Who paid?

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packetslave
someone with a stolen credit card, probably

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factchecker01
Cyber news has done many of these stories.

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jimthrow
First we are legally required to give them our info then they leak it

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fyrefoxboy12
isn't the census about to start this year? this is some "same shit, different
toilet" scenario. all these so-called secure government institutions or
private companies or wherever this database came from. always promising a lot,
and delivering little.

that's what happens when non-cybersec people are in charge of cybersec things

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jrockway
We have been doing the census for hundreds of years and it seems to go pretty
okay.

If someone wants to map your name to your home address, they already have the
voter registration database for that.

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danmg
It's all the data that's not census data and the fact that it's joined with
census data. Why is this data joined with tax information, calls to fire
departments, and bike share information?

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jrockway
Because people use their real name as the primary key in almost every
database? The census team did not steal Lyft's database and leak it.

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danmg
Yes it's their fault for using their own name. It's not the fault of the
people keeping creepy dossiers on random customers that creates this hazard.

