An election app used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political party may have exposed the personal information of about 6.5 million voters, the country’s entire national voting registration.
Likud, like other political parties in the country, was given access to a copy of the national voting registration for use in campaigning in the lead-up to the March 2 election. According to Haaretz, a programmer noticed a breach in the software that could have publicized voters’ names, ID numbers, addresses, and other personal information.
The developer of the app, Elector, said that the error was quickly addressed. There is no indication that the information had been downloaded before the app was fixed, but Likud prepared for the possibility that information could have been released. A leak would be concerning because military leaders and government officials are among those whose personal data is on the app.
The programmer who spotted the breach, Ran Bar-Zik, said that the information that was on the app would be incredibly valuable if it were released.
“This is a rare treasure trove of information on no less than 6,453,254 Israeli citizens that any foreign government, intelligence organization, or commercial company would like to own,” Bar-Zik said.
Netanyahu’s party said in a statement that “security of the site has been enhanced” following the discovery and added that “it should be emphasized that this is an external software provider providing services to many parties.”
In the United States, the Iowa caucuses were disrupted last week by a “coding error” in an app the Iowa Democratic Party used to calculate results. The vote tallies were delayed for days and have raised questions about accuracy.
