Voter databases available on the dark web - report

Endpoint security service provider Carbon Black has announced the release of its Quarterly Incident Response Threat Report (QIRTR), aggregating key findings from incident response (IR) partner investigations during the last 90 days.

The QIRTR aggregates qualitative and quantitative input from 37 Carbon Black IR partners.

The report's goal is to offer actionable intelligence for business and technology leaders, fueled by analysis of new threats, and insights on how to stop them.

This is Carbon Black's second quarterly report since introducing the QIRTR in July.

Carbon Black chief cybersecurity officer Tom Kellermann, one of the report's authors, says, "Our research found that today's attackers are increasingly punitive, sophisticated and confident.

"And because of the dark web, they have access to complex tools and compromised infrastructures, including voter databases. This allows attackers to exploit new security vulnerabilities and operate at a higher level of sophistication than before.

Carbon Black researchers also found 20 different state voter databases available for purchase on the dark web, several from swing states.

Critical information in these offerings include voter IDs, full names, current / previous addresses, genders, phone numbers, and citizenship status, among other information.

According to the research, the dark web also offers hacking and influence campaigns targeting social media sites, as well as hackers for hire, who offer to target government entities for the purposes of database manipulation, economic/ corporate espionage, DDoS attacks and botnet rentals.

In conjunction with the report's release, Carbon Black hosted its inaugural Incident Response Partner Advisory Council (IR Council) meeting in Chicago on October 30.

The IR Council provides the Carbon Black Incident Response partner community, which totals more than 100 partners, an opportunity to share knowledge and best practices with peers.

IR Council members include security thought leaders from Ankura, Critical Start, Crowe, Grant Thornton, HALOCK Security Labs, IBM, Kroll, Lifars, Nisos Group, NTT Security, Optiv, Rapid7, Sylint and Trustwave.