New research has found three-quarters of US lawmakers could be vulnerable to security risks such as identity theft as their personal information is easily accessible online through people search finder sites.
A report from Incogni identified contact details, relative information, and home addresses for 80% of male Republican house members, and 74% of male house Democrats. In comparison, female house members’ information was marginally harder to obtain, with 62% and 73% of Republican and Democratic house members information available respectively.
People search sites are specialized search engines which compile and sell personal data – often unbeknownst to the owner. Information available on the House member varied, with some members of Congress’ court records, property values, and relative information exposed.
Security risks
Smaller US states were most unprotected, whereas Arizona, Washington, New York, Minnesota, Indiana, and Connecticut the best protected, with less than 60% of house members’ information found on people search sites.
Unprotected personal information was a massive oversight from security services, said Darius Belejeva, Head of Incogni and data privacy expert.
“The safety of U.S. lawmakers has rarely felt so precarious, so it was frightening to uncover how much of their personal data is easily obtainable,” she added. “This is a massive oversight that exposes House Members to security risks, and needs to be urgently addressed.”
The news comes at an important time for US political security after the recent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, as well as a Virginia man being charged with making violent online threats against Vice President Harris.
‘“This is not just an issue affecting high-profile politicians though,” added Belejeva. “Millions of Americans unknowingly have their personal data stored on people search sites that can be exploited by fraudsters and identify thieves and sold to unknown entities for purposes they haven’t consented to.”
Personal information data removal services are available and can be used to keep track of and remove data from online brokers.
