
The DNC data breach - shorodei
http://blog.ngpvan.com/news/data-security-and-privacy
======
sethbannon
For those that are not familiar with the space, campaigns typically use voter
contact software to record the results of the conversations they have with
potential voters on the phones, at the doors, and over the Internet. In this
case, the voter contact software that both the Hillary and Sanders campaigns
were using, NGP VAN, had a bug which allowed both campaigns to access each
other's private, proprietary data (in this case, I believe, modeling data).

The Data Director on the Sanders campaign discovered the error and (he claims)
was verifying and documenting the bug, which was then reported to the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) and NGP VAN. The DNC claims these actions
were not in good faith, and as a reaction cut the Sanders campaign off from
the system.

This is a BIG deal for a campaign, so close to the first elections. Campaigns
rely on that data to inform nearly everything they do, and rely on access to
such tools to conduct their voter outreach program. Being cut off from the
system is crippling for a campaign, likely why the Sanders campaign so quickly
sued to get its access reinstated [1].

[1] - [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/sanders-campaign-
threa...](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/sanders-campaign-threatens-to-
sue-dnc-216942)

edit: typos

~~~
toomuchtodo
Difficulty level in replicating this dataset from secretary of state rolls?

~~~
occsceo
I've been working on a project like this for some time now - and wresting with
whether I want to go the community-based vs. closed source model.

The problems listed below are pretty exact: huge data sets, lots of cleaning
and normalizing, and the snail mail/cd problem is real. Additionally, I'd note
that ~40% of the states [somehow] charge for the data...it takes six digits to
get a snapshot of all 50 states - and certain states (looking at you FL) say
that they do not store the historical, meaning you have to connect with the
local BoE's to aggregate the data.

A part of me [now] wants to open source this because of the DNC's actions.

~~~
sethbannon
Would love to hear more and see if we can't collaborate on this. My email is
seth AT amicushq DOT com.

~~~
occsceo
i'll fire an email your way shortly. but yea, a conversation would be great.

~~~
michael_fine
Not to pollute the thread, but I'm also really interested in this, I've worked
at both the Clinton campaign and NGP VAN and it seems like a very worthwhile
pursuit. If you're adding people, my email is in my profile.

------
slg
If you believe the Sanders camp, this sounds a lot like the Instagram bug
bounty issue [1] that appeared on HN recently. Someone from the Sanders
campaign identified a bug and to prove their was an issue grabbed private data
that they should have never had the ability to access. That is questionable
ethically whether they looked at the data or not. The DNC also can't
immediately tell if it is the truth or if the data was taken maliciously.
Given that, I don't think it is unreasonable to temporarily shut out the
Sander campaign until it was fixed. _Although if I was in charge, I would shut
out all campaigns until the matter is fully investigated. It isn 't fair to
disable one campaign if there was nothing malicious happening. (Never mind,
see edit)_

EDIT: Actually on seconding reading the Sander's lockout was not for security
reasons and was only done by the DNC in awaiting full details from the
campaign. In that instance it wouldn't make sense to suspend any other
campaign's access. They are punishing the Sanders campaign in hopes that it
causes a quick confession of the exact details of what data the campaign
accessed and retained. I still don't think that response is as unreasonable as
some Sander supporters are alleging.

[1] -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10754194](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10754194)

~~~
smadge
I think it is pretty unreasonable. As you note, there is no technical reason
to deny the Bernie campaign access to their data. The Bernie campaign has
fully indicated they want and are willing to cooperate with a third party
investigation into the data breach, which would require investigating both
campaigns, the DNC, and NPG VAN. Given they are already willing to share
everything they know about the incident, there is absolute no legitimate
reason for the DNC to intentionally sabotage the campaign.

~~~
slg
There is no technical reason, but that doesn't mean there is no reason.
Sanders campaign may have violated rules. The DNC has thrown them in jail
without bail in hopes that it gets things resolved quickly. I have no problem
with that. If the DNC drags this process out that would be a very different
story.

~~~
mrgordon
There is a reason we don't normally throw people into jail without bail...

~~~
morganvachon
Actually we (in the U.S.) do, if the charges are serious enough or if the
suspect is a flight risk. It varies by jurisdiction, but in general
misdemeanor charges have pre-set bonds, and usually felony warrants will have
a bond set by the judge at the time the warrant is issued, though for serious
charges the warrant may be issued with no bond set.

~~~
mrgordon
Thats why I said "normally"

------
justinzollars
I'm sure Sanders was just polling well, and this is the perfect opportunity
for the DNC to pull the rug out under his campaign.

NGP-VAN is crap hack software anyways.

~~~
diyorgasms
Right? Bernie just got some endorsements (which he has been sorely lacking),
and all of a sudden this company (the CEO of which is a public Clinton
supporter) has a problem that affects the Sanders campaign but not the Clinton
campaign, on word from the company that there was a bad actor in the Sanders
campaign but not the Clinton campaign.

Sure it's possible that the Sanders campaign did exploit this and the Clinton
campaign did not. But I'm skeptical as hell given the political allegiances of
the company's leadership.

~~~
morninj
Having actually used NGP-VAN, I think it's far more likely that this was a
bug, not a conspiracy. The VAN is a real clunker in many ways, so it's not
surprising that a bug like this would appear; and public exposure of a
conspiracy to sabotage Sanders would be so catastrophic to the Clinton
campaign that I think it's highly unlikely that NGP-VAN would do it.

~~~
scarmig
As someone who has had... shall we say, intimate interactions with NGP-VAN's
code base, the idea being floated by some Sanders supporters that this is a
DNC conspiracy and not a bug is hilarious.

~~~
toomuchtodo
So its Sanders' campaign's fault NGP-VAN's code is shit and released
information it shouldn't?

EDIT: Why isn't the DNC taking punitive actions against NGP-VAN? Ahh! Of
course. Because they're a tight knit "provider" which is essentially the
political tech vendor of the DNC.

------
toufka
A significant problem with 'dynasties' is that you start to get perceived, if
not real conflicts of interest above and beyond governance itself.

As was pointed out in this reddit thread [1],The CEO of NPG VAN (Stu
Trevelyan) is a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton and worked on the 1992
Clinton-Gore "War Room," and then in the Clinton White House [2].

[1]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3xbt3w/bernie_s...](https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3xbt3w/bernie_sanders_campaign_is_disciplined_for/)

[2] [https://personaldemocracy.com/stu-
trevelyan](https://personaldemocracy.com/stu-trevelyan)

~~~
joshdick
It's irrelevant who the NPGVAN CEO supports: The decision to cut off the
Sanders campaign was made by the DNC, not him.

------
thieving_magpie
A bug of that nature, completely bypassing all permissions, made it past
testing (I presume they test). Whatever happened afterward is noise to me. How
the hell do you let that happen?

Hardly getting any blame is a neat trick. I wish I had that luxury.

~~~
sneak
Close enough for government work.

See also: "goto fail;"

------
smadge
Josh Uretsky and Russell Drapkin copied voter lists [1]. Did they intend to
keep and misuse the lists that they copied? If they knew they were being
audited, it's unlikely they intended to misused the data and get away with it.
Uretsky has experience as a programmer [2]. He might be telling the truth and
was only documenting and determining the severity of the issue. On the other
hand 20 voter lists is a bit extensive for a proof of concept.

[1] -
[http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-12-18/sander...](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-12-18/sanders-
campaign-fires-data-director-after-breach-of-clinton-files)

[2] - [http://heavy.com/news/2015/12/josh-uretsky-bernie-sanders-
ca...](http://heavy.com/news/2015/12/josh-uretsky-bernie-sanders-campaign-
national-data-director-fired-photos-bio-age-who-improperly-accessed-clinton-
data-democratic-dnc-system-access/)

edit: added source

------
digitalzombie
That bug seems to be setting back Bernie Sanders, which sucks.

The media going to have a field day with this.

~~~
Zikes
Well, at least the media blackout is over.

~~~
gingerrr
Right? I thought I was still asleep when I opened the news to see a Sanders
headline, until I read the story

------
rockshassa
Are there any grey-hat things that can be done keep campaign-parity in the
mean time? Strictly hypothetically, I'd throw all of my technical skills at
this problem if there was a clear path to a solution.

------
n0us
Interesting that Hillary would protest unauthorized access of data when she
was running that email server that was not authorized, and arguably was
holding much more important information than a voter database.

