Elections Alberta has taken decisive action by issuing 568 cease and desist letters following the unauthorized leak of a voter list containing sensitive personal information belonging to 2.9 million Albertans. The letters were sent to individuals who either received or accessed the compromised list, which was made public by the Centurion Project.
Details of the Cease and Desist Orders
In a statement to Postmedia, Elections Alberta confirmed that Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure issued 23 cease and desist letters to individuals identified by the Centurion Project as having been provided with the list of electors. An additional 545 letters were sent to those who accessed the list through the group's website. The 23 individuals who were directly provided the list must submit a signed declaration confirming compliance within 48 hours.
The Centurion Project's Role
The Centurion Project had uploaded the list, which included phone numbers, addresses, and unique identifiers of 2.9 million Albertans, to its public website. Following a court injunction granted last week, the group was ordered to remove the list from public view and identify all individuals who received or accessed it. They were also required to provide contact information for those individuals to the chief electoral officer within four days.
Investigation Underway
Elections Alberta, in collaboration with the RCMP, is currently investigating how the Centurion Project obtained a copy of the voter list from the Republican Party of Alberta. This breach has raised serious concerns about data security and privacy protections for voters in the province.
The leak has been described as one of the largest data breaches in Canadian history, prompting calls from academics for a public inquiry into the incident. The investigation aims to determine the full scope of the breach and prevent future occurrences.
