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A comment on Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack.

Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by jjgreen on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @10:13AM (#37049258)
While the data contained in the electoral registers is limited, and much of it is already in the public domain

What is not generally in the public domain is the National Insurance number, mandatory on electoral registration since 2015, very useful for impersonation purposes. I wonder if they got those?

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by darkclouds on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @10:25AM (#37049431)
I tried to take myself off it using the webpage, I couldnt remove myself only change my name.

Dont see the point of being on it, I wont be voting ever again!

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by jjgreen on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @10:26AM (#37049450)
It is a criminal offence to not register.
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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by andyjohnson0 on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @10:47AM (#37049785)
> It is a criminal offence to not register.

Afaik that is not correct. It is a criminal offence to refuse to complete the registration form or to give false information. But if you're not asked ro register then no offence is committed.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by jjgreen on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @10:52AM (#37049844)
I stand corrected, they are generally rather persistent in asking though ...
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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by tigeroil on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @11:37AM (#37050636)
Which is rather amusing, as my partner, a Chinese national, is regularly hounded to register, despite not being eligible to do so (and in fact, would be committing an offense if she tried).
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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by maxehmookau on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @11:08AM (#37050125)
Apparently you must register to vote. You can opt out of the extended register. [1]

Not being on the electoral register is a huge pain too. It affects your credit quite significantly.

[1] https://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500328/voting/6470/regist...

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by developer93 on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @12:19PM (#37051405)
I'm registered to vote, but because I don't live at my last UK address since leaving the country over 10 years ago, I can confirm: it's a factor in a bad credit rating.
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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by darkclouds on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @06:36PM (#37056406)
> It affects your credit quite significantly.

I dont care, I closed my bank accounts because I dont like the way the banks share data with credit agencies. One of the reasons why I stopped using crypto.

Privacy is massively undervalued. :)

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by maxehmookau on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @08:58AM (#37061980)
I'm glad you're in a position to not need a bank account. Unfortunately the vast majority of us rely on having a bank account and a credit record to exist in society.

You can argue that it sucks, and I'd partly agree, but that is how society works right now.

Privacy is undervalued, I agree. But I also like having a roof over my head and a way for my employer to give me money each month.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by darkclouds on Thursday August 10, 2023 @01:51PM (#37079412)
I would live on the streets but everything is owned by someone or something so you become incarcerated by different entities against your will. Violence always wins. And we can only suicide for free, euthanasia costs money.

Life is intelligent slavery now, more psychological than physical, and way more stealth than most people realise.

Anyway don't worry about me you have yours and your loved ones backs to watch and your grown up toys to worry about. Nothing has changed in thousands of years.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by darkclouds on Thursday August 10, 2023 @08:09PM (#37083421)
This is me, do you believe the police? Cambridge police saw me not far from the train station, USAF staff also asked if I wanted a lift somewhere in the best trolling manner possible. https://www.facebook.com/norfolkpolice/photos/a.296009593089...

The UK down plays its surveillance as its best to not wake the population up plus its a stealth form on entrapment, illegal in the UK and it also provides a facility for deniable ops like murders.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by darkclouds on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @06:30PM (#37056354)
It doesnt look like it is a criminal offence but when I tried to remove myself the option wasnt there, so I changed the name. I could remove other people on the system.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/6/section/5/enacte...

Maintenance of registers: invitations to register in Great Britain

(1)A registration officer in Great Britain must give a person an invitation to apply for registration in a register maintained by the officer if—

(a)the officer is aware of the person’s name and address,

(b)the person is not registered in the register, and

(c)the officer has reason to believe that the person may be entitled to be registered in the register.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by lawtalkinghuman on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @07:39AM (#37061188)
It isn't a criminal offence. It's a civil penalty that can be levied if they require you to register and you don't.

The legislative text (it's an amending regulation—think a diff—but the underlying statute hasn't been updated on Legislation.gov.uk yet) is here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/en/uksi/2013/3198/regulation/...

The Electoral Commission's guidance - https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/running-electoral-reg...

I can't find any reports of people actually receiving the penalty. It'd certainly be useful if the Electoral Commission collected these statistics, but they don't. It seems fairly rare, and it's likely to be one of those things that's there to encourage people to register to vote rather than something to be actively enforced.

I'd also note that given there is a requirement for an in-person home visit to encourage registration before service a formal notice, it's pretty likely that COVID restrictions and guidance meant quite a lot of the home visits didn't happen over the last few years.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by dfawcus on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @01:05PM (#37052229)
Leave the country for however long it takes to lose the vote, then upon returning simply forget to register?

Ireland is close, and would probably suffice.

I've a vague memory of it being 7 years, but on checking it seems to be 15.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by mrmikardo on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @11:01AM (#37049994)
This is another good case for security-by-minimisation. I struggle to see why NI numbers were required on the electoral register — particularly when democracy in the UK had been functioning for over a century without them.

The best way to ensure valuable data doesn’t leak into the public realm is to minimise the amount of unnecessary data collection.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by jjgreen on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @11:04AM (#37050045)
I struggle to see why NI numbers were required on the electoral register

I don't, they were introduced shortly after the plans for an ID card died out. It's simply a proxy ID register.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by rwmj on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @12:22PM (#37051456)
Best way here would have been to only collect the information at the constituency level. Why is there even a need for a national database? If you're concerned about fraud then periodically cross-check hashed NI numbers or something like that.
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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by cameronh90 on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @04:43PM (#37055192)
One reason they're recorded is to try and detect voter fraud.
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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by xnorswap on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @11:20AM (#37050323)
While officially they serve a similar purpose, NI numbers aren't used like SSNs are for identification, so the impersonation impact is more limited than an equivalent leak of US SSNs would be.
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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by jjgreen on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @11:22AM (#37050356)
To prevent identity fraud, keep your National Insurance number safe. Do not share it with anyone who does not need it.

HMG

https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/your-national-insuranc...

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by OscarTheGrinch on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @12:05PM (#37051177)
Clearly fraudsters need it.

Typical late stage Tory victim blaming coms.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by psychphysic on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @12:05PM (#37051180)
NI is more about the right to work.

That said I'm sure it'll be a factor in credit card applications.

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Re:Millions of UK voters’ data accessible in cyber-attack by highwaylights on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @01:34PM (#37052688)
Hopefully. Then you’re off the hook for identity theft liability for the rest of your natural life. And probably a lot of changes will be needed immediately to how credit applications work in the UK.

No I’m not serious I’m just venting at the incompetence of it all

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