This news developing in the Russian paper Kommersant…
Data reportedly appeared on the Darkweb thanks to a user named Gorka9.. Since then it is reported that Russian Internet users have shared the personal data of nearly every voter in Michigan (7.6 million of the state’s 7.8 million voters), as well as the information of another million voters in Arkansas, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Florida..
Even more:
According to Kommersant, the voter data was released online for free, but the newspaper says forum members apparently used the U.S. government’s own “Rewards for Justice” program to earn money on the stolen information by reporting the election interference to the State Department. One forum member told the newspaper that he received $4,000 for sharing a hyperlink with U.S. officials to the leaked database of Connecticut voters..
BUT
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told journalist Christopher Miller that the agency has yet to pay “any rewards from the August 5 Rewards for Justice announcement.”
Another reporter tonight is calling it a nonthingburger at this point. .Kevin Rothrock writes, “Looks like the Kommersant story is mostly a nothingburger at this point, at least from a U.S. perspective. For Russianists, however, this is interesting insofar as (1) why did Kommersant run this story? and (2) what exactly are Russian hackers doing with these open-access data?”
What is real?
What is true?
What is dark.
DEVELOPING..