Russian Passport Data Of A Million Blockchain Voters Exposed Online

Reports in the blockchain news today show that Russian passport information of more than one million blockchain voters has been exposed online today. The data on all 1.14 million Russians who decided to vote using a blockchain platform in the recent referendum on constitutional reform was made publicly available on the Internet – coming directly from a state-run server.

Meduza reported that one .zip file containing ID information, passport numbers and other Russian passport data of the voters was shared among election officials on June 30, which was the day when the blockchain ballot closed.

In the report that is now viral in the crypto news, Meduza said that “a source sent a photograph of institutions for checking internet voters” which was shared among the heads of electorial commissions. Also, the author of the report said that “the instructions did not feature any official stamps of secrecy or confidentiality warnings.”

The media outlet noted that by following the instructions, it was able to access the data of more than 1 million voters who used the platform. It also claimed the following:

“The .zip archive was hosted on a government site. Access to the archive was free. On July 1, at least from 9am to 12pm Moscow time, anyone could download it.”

What is also visible is that the file was password-protected. However, Meduza wrote that the photograph it received also informed recipients of the password. The agency added that for the widely available password-cracking software, this “took a couple of days” to gain access to the file using a PC fitted with “an old Intel Core i3-4160 processor.”

Meduza added that it had decided not to publish a link to the file because of two reasons:

1. The link does not work anymore.
2. It “still allows you to find and download the archive” which it claimed was “very weakly protected.”

Alleging that the platform was full of other issues, Meduza noted that the Russian passport data allowed some votes to be counted twice. In the entire chaos, we are waiting for official information about this case and how it will be resolved.

For now, we got reports by election officials showing that the vote was a success, and stating that they will look to allow blockchain voting in more locations for the next general election which is set for September 2021.