Marion County Clerk Steve Fox says a vulnerability found in voter registration databases on Platinum Technology Resources does not involve the Marion County program.
The problem was found in programs involving a dozen counties, including Jefferson and Effingham, but not in Marion, Clinton, Fayette, and Wayne Counties that use the system as well.
Fox says the problem was found by cyber security researchers who informed the company which addressed the security concerns in August.
“Marion County’s data was not included in that review by him, nor could he access it,” Fox said. “In fact, the county doesn’t even use that portal that some of these counties have been using to load information in. It’s not anything to do with voter registration, it’s just a place where they could store information that they might have received from a voter during the registration process… Nothing here in Marion County, but unfortunately there were some counties affected.”
Fox says the issue could not affect the election program.
“It has nothing to do with the voter registration rolls, has nothing to do with the voter setup or any of the processes,” Fox said. “It was just data they were storing auxiliary, outside of the system.”
Capitol News Illinois reports the documents allegedly contained Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, and other personally identifiable information. An expert in election management David Becker says the open information could cause potentially serious issues concerning identity theft and data security.
