Here’s what happened with NGP VAN, the Sanders Campaign, and the Clinton Campaign

[boston bean]

And here are the steps we are taking to address the problem

The Democratic National Committee, through its software partner NGP VAN, provides tools for Democratic campaigns that are invaluable and second to none. This week, there was error with that system, however, which led to an incident involving the Sanders campaign.

We want to lay out exactly what happened so that people better understand why the DNC needed to suspend the Sanders campaign’s access to our system and how we’ve been working to fully resolve a serious problem — and get everyone back to work electing a Democrat to the White House in 2016.

On Wednesday morning, NGP VAN applied a new software patch to the DNC’s voter database system, and because of an error in the code, users were capable of accessing some limited, yet extremely valuable information belonging to other campaigns for a very brief window of time. Even though the glitch opened access, users still needed to take deliberate steps to seek out such information.

It’s important to make a few things clear from the start. At no point were donor records, financial information, or volunteer data exposed between campaigns. At no point was any data exposed to the public. With the correction of the glitch and further audits by NGP VAN, we are confident now that the data within the system is secure.

Once NGP VAN had taken steps to contain the glitch, the DNC directed NGP VAN to conduct a thorough analysis to:
•Identify any users who may have accessed information from another campaign inappropriately,
•Pinpoint exactly what actions any such users took in the system, and
•Report these findings to the DNC so we would know what, if any, data was actually acquired.

As a result of this analysis, NGP VAN found that campaign staff on the Sanders campaign, including the campaign’s national data director, had accessed proprietary information about which voters were being targeted by the Clinton campaign — and in doing so violated their agreements with the DNC.

These staffers then saved this information in their personal folders on the system, and over the course of the next day, we learned that at least one staffer appeared to have generated reports and exported them from the system.

None of this is in dispute. It’s fully documented in the system logs. And these details reveal nothing less than a serious violation of the agreements governing the use of this data. Underscoring that fact is the point that the Sanders campaign has fired their national data director and indicated further disciplinary actions may be taken pending the results of their own investigation.

When we understood what initially happened, we asked the Sanders campaign to tell us who exactly accessed Hillary for America information, share their understanding of what data was accessed, describe what was done with that information, and detail how the campaign intended to discipline the staffers involved.

On Thursday, further NGP VAN analysis revealed that it was very likely that a user had taken data out of the system during the breach. Upon learning that, the DNC had to suspend the Sanders campaign’s access to the voter file to ensure the integrity of the system. This action was not taken to punish the Sanders campaign — it was necessary to ensure that the Sanders campaign took appropriate steps to resolve the issue and wasn’t unfairly using another campaign’s data. This temporary suspension was well within the DNC’s authority. Moreover, the DNC was left with little choice in the matter when the Sanders campaign declined to respond in a timely manner to the requests for assistance with an investigation.

On Thursday, the Sanders campaign did move to fire its national data director. But we still weren’t provided the information we needed from the campaign until late in the evening on Friday. Once they complied with our prior request and provided documentation that we were then able to review, we immediately restored the Sanders campaign’s access to the voter file — as was always our intention and as we had advised well before they sued the Committee.

And the information obtained so far shows that the DNC’s concern to have a full, thorough inquiry was fully justified: As confirmed by the Sanders campaign in the account given the DNC Friday evening, one of the employees of the campaign involved in the misconduct tried to delete the notes they made recording their accessing of Clinton campaign data to hide his activities.

The next step is to continue to investigate the incident with the help of an independent auditor. This is necessary to confirm, as the Sanders campaign has assured us, that the data that was inappropriately accessed is no longer in possession of the Sanders campaign. The Sanders campaign has agreed to fully cooperate with the continuing DNC investigation of this breach.

The DNC has also instructed NGP VAN to conduct a review process of their internal procedures to identify how this mistake was allowed to happen and prevent further such mistakes. The DNC is currently beginning the process of securing an additional, independent audit by a data security firm of NGP VAN’s procedures.

We are glad that all parties are moving forward and that the candidates and Democrats can refocus on engaging voters to show how our party will continue growing the economy and keep Americans safe.

https://medium.com/@AmyKDacey/here-s-what-happened-with-ngp-van-the-sanders-campaign-and-the-clinton-campaign-d75dd1d2edbf#.b5h8xbkqm

A public announcement is not a copy right infringement.

[madfloridian]

1. Now we need to know who accessed Bernie's info in October.

As the lawsuit progresses we might learn that.

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. Where are you getting that? eom

[George II]

15. There has been no claim that anyone accessed Sanders' information in October. If that happened.....

....don't you think this would have been a HUGE story on Friday and Saturday?

[JackInGreen]

2. An interesting perspective

Let's go to discovery and get it all out into the light under oath and public so we're all on the same page. Shall we?

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. That's a bad idea for the Democratic Party. eom

[JackInGreen]

6. I think it'd be great for the party

Just not so hot for Hill n DWS.

[riversedge]

9. Yes, in Discovery we will see exactily what the Sanders staff accessed and the searchs that

that were made by the fired/and or suspended staff.



"the logs show the Sanders staffers took deliberate steps to harvest and store the information."

http://time.com/4155185/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/

...............According to data reviewed by TIME, the Sanders campaign appears to have obtained files with lists of voters that the Clinton campaign had cultivated in 10 early states including Iowa and New Hampshire.

Beyond simply reviewing the data, the logs show the Sanders staffers took deliberate steps to harvest and store the information. According to the logs, the Sanders staff created from scratch no fewer than 24 lists—consisting entirely of data pulled down from the Clinton campaign’s database—and saved them to their personal folders.


The logs show the Sanders campaign accessed the Clinton data for nearly one hour beginning around 10:40 p.m. Wednesday. The Sanders staffers were apparently able to view unique voter information along with accompanying information about how likely the voters were to vote for the various candidates, crucial information that the Clinton campaign has likely spent millions of dollars to collect.

The Clinton campaign called for a clear accounting of the breach.

“We were informed that our proprietary data was breached by Sanders campaign staff in 25 searches by four different accounts and that this data was saved into the Sanders’ campaign account,” said spokesman Brian Fallon. “We are asking that the Sanders campaign and the DNC work expeditiously to ensure that our data is not in the Sanders campaign’s account and that the Sanders campaign only have access to their own data.”

Moreover, the Sanders staffers who carried out the breach included a top lieutenant for the Vermont senator: Josh Uretsky, the national data director for the campaign.

The Sanders campaign denied that it had downloaded any data, saying that it did not retain information from the Clinton campaign.

“They didn’t download it—they went in looked around,” said Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs, who announced Thursday the campaign was firing Utersky and that they were treating the matter seriously.

Uretsky also told MSNBC that the campaign “did not export any records or voter file data” and was simply trying “to document and understand the scope of the problem.”.................

[JackInGreen]

12. Then we can see that and try it's honesty there too

Win/win right? I'm glad you agree.
I doubt DWS or Hill do though, I think they'd prefer this all go away as fast as Debs dropped the axe.

[cantbeserious]

3. This Citizen will Never Believe Any Press Release Generated By The HRC Campaign

eom

[riversedge]

7. well the, I

concur with this salutation.

[cantbeserious]

8. May The Farce Be At Your Expense HRC

eom

[SunSeeker]

10. Wow, I was unaware the Sanders campaign tried to erase notes.

I wonder if that is why Bernie suspended two additional Sanders campaign data people.

[boston bean]

11. uh huh.. But it's Sanders who is the victim of some conspiratorial plot

to make his campaign team delve into the proprietary information of another candidate.

[SunSeeker]

13. Bernie suggested at the debate--with no evidence--that his data was accessed.

That only feeds those conspiracy theories.

[boston bean]

16. yeah, he wants an investigation on something there is no proof of.

Even admits there isn't any.

Just to deflect away from his campaigns actions. The conspiracies are way out there!

[MH1]

17. One staffer - not the campaign - tried to erase HIS OWN notes

From the OP:

As confirmed by the Sanders campaign in the account given the DNC Friday evening, one of the employees of the campaign involved in the misconduct tried to delete the notes they made recording their accessing of Clinton campaign data to hide his activities.

That does appear dishonest, but it isn't like they were trying to erase notes that Clinton staffers had made on individual voters.

I just wanted to clarify your statement because the way you phrased it sounds even worse than it really was.

[SunSeeker]

18. The staffers are the campaign. And the buck stops with Bernie. nt

[boston bean]

19. Erase his own notes recording the access of the clinton campaign data..

That is better?

Deleting evidence? Evidence, which by the way comes out will be awful for Bernie. But you folks continue on about bad the DNC has it out for Bernie and in for Hillary.

[George II]

14. Good job. Thanks.