{"id":2224295,"date":"2024-04-18T14:36:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T18:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hundreds-of-conservative-job-seekers-personal-information-exposed-by-meadows-conservative-partnership-institute-which-left-resumes-uploaded-to-job-bank-unprotected\/"},"modified":"2024-04-18T14:41:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T18:41:49","slug":"hundreds-of-conservative-job-seekers-personal-information-exposed-by-meadows-conservative-partnership-institute-which-left-resumes-uploaded-to-job-bank-unprotected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hundreds-of-conservative-job-seekers-personal-information-exposed-by-meadows-conservative-partnership-institute-which-left-resumes-uploaded-to-job-bank-unprotected\/","title":{"rendered":"Meadows&#8217; Conservative Partnership Institute Exposes Hundreds of Conservative Job Seekers&#8217; Personal Data with Unprotected Resume Uploads"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhundreds-of-conservative-job-seekers-personal-information-exposed-by-meadows-conservative-partnership-institute-which-left-resumes-uploaded-to-job-bank-unprotected%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2224295&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The\u2063 Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) inadvertently exposed sensitive personal \u2063information of over 1,500 \u200djob \u2062applicants, including high-level security clearance holders, in an\u200d online &#8220;jobs bank.&#8221; The\u2063 breach included <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">social security numbers<\/a>, addresses, and other personal details stored in an \u200dunprotected Amazon cloud system. This security \u2064lapse poses risks to national security and individuals&#8217; privacy.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span>The right-wing group that leads a recruitment effort for Capitol Hill offices and allied nonprofits, the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), has for months left exposed the sensitive personal information of applicants to its online &#8220;jobs bank,&#8221; the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> found, including members of the U.S. intelligence community, congressional aides, former Trump administration officials, and campaign operatives. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Led by former Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint and one of his former aides, Ed Corrigan, as well as by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, who the <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/20\/us\/politics\/trump-conservative-partnership-institute.html\">reported<\/a> is paid $847,000 to serve as the organization&#8217;s &#8220;senior partner,&#8221; the Conservative Partnership Institute has exposed the social security numbers, home addresses, private client names, and other personal details of over 1,500 job applicants, including several who hold the highest level security clearance\u2014known as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-to-appoint-special-master-to-review-trump-records-seized-by-fbi\/\" title=\"Judge to Appoint \"Special Master\" to Review Trump Records Seized by FBI\">top secret\/sensitive compartmented information<\/a> (TS\/SCI) clearance\u2014in a public online storage system on an Amazon cloud. With basic web-scraping software, the records can be viewed by anyone, including America\u2019s foreign adversaries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The discovery comes days after <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dlippman\/status\/1778731040082624660\"><span>news reports<\/span><\/a><span>  revealed that foreign actors are setting their sights on key aspects of the right-wing infrastructure in Washington, D.C. According to a <em>Politico<\/em> report, the Heritage Foundation was the subject of a cyberattack last week, likely from Russian or Chinese state actors, &#8220;aimed at Project 2025,&#8221; an effort to assemble resumes and lay the groundwork for the next Trump administration, if the former president wins the election in November. A Heritage official told <em>Politico<\/em> that the resume bank wasn\u2019t breached because it is kept on a different server than the one attacked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As recently as Tuesday, the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> was able to access and view hundreds of the resumes, including many containing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-senator-harry-reid-thinks-government-has-ufo-fragments-backs-ex-pentagon-official-who-claims-cover-up\/\" title=\"Former Senator Harry Reid Thinks Government Has UFO \u2018Fragments\u2019 Backs Ex-Pentagon Official Who Claims Cover-Up\">sensitive national security<\/a> and personal details, through the Conservative Partnership Institute\u2019s unrestricted online storage system. A denuded resume uploaded by the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> through the CPI\u2019s &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/jobs.cpi.org\/\"><span>job bank initiative<\/span><\/a><span>&#8221; was instantly accessible online.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <em>Free Beacon<\/em> sent a note to Corrigan on Thursday morning apprising him of the problem and of our intention to write a story on the matter, but not until we received confirmation the compromised files had been taken down. A public relations spokesman for CPI, Bobby Donachie of Athos PR, responded to the note with a phone call raising questions about whether any of the files were publicly accessible and proceeded to hang up. The files were removed shortly thereafter, and a spokesman for CPI said &#8220;we have resolved the situation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span>One resume included details about the applicant\u2019s work collecting Russian data for a U.S. intelligence agency. Others included the detailed military and national security backgrounds of over 50 job seekers with active security clearances, and, in some cases, military records like discharge and separation papers from the military. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The <em>Free Beacon<\/em> has removed all private and personally identifying information from the Air Force\u2019s Form DD214, a certificate of release from active duty, which was posted to the job bank, just one example of the sort of sensitive information that sat online there.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>Other applicants described themselves as follows: An intelligence analyst for a U.S. government client described herself as &#8220;a highly qualified Intelligence professional with over 5 years of experience in the Intelligence Community\u2026TS\/SCI clearance with Full Scope Polygraph.&#8221; A current Pentagon official with a TS\/SCI clearance said he &#8220;leads the team that translates the President\u2019s and Secretary of Defense\u2019s directives into policy and orders for execution in U.S Central Command.&#8221; The resumes for both included their names, addresses, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-doj-secretly-obtained-calls-emails-from-cnn-reporter-report\/\" title=\"Trump DOJ Secretly Obtained Calls, Emails From CNN Reporter: REPORT\">cell phone numbers<\/a>.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The records also disclosed the private clients of numerous D.C. public affairs firms, including the DCI Group, FP1, Hiltzik Strategies, and CRC Advisors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The records are stored in open Amazon S3 buckets, which are publicly accessible unless the owner takes steps to make them private.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Joseph Steinberg, a cyber risk expert and the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/josephsteinberg.com\/cybersecurityexpertjosephsteinberg\/\"><span>author<\/span><\/a><span>  of <\/span><i><span>Cybersecurity for Dummies<\/span><\/i><span>, told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> that the unprotected system was &#8220;<\/span><span>essentially the equivalent of putting a bucket of sensitive data in the middle of Times Square.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;Foreign actors are probably going after these things,&#8221; Steinberg said. &#8220;We don\u2019t know the repercussions that could come down the line.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Steinberg added that such information could be collected by foreign governments and used to identify future administration officials, possibly for &#8220;blackmail and bribery.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>CPI was founded by DeMint, a former South Carolina senator, in 2017. Its job bank originally focused on placing staffers on Capitol Hill but widened its scope in recent years. CPI\u2019s website states that it has &#8220;provided the administrative, staffing, and legal support for more than a dozen groups,&#8221; including America First Legal, the American Accountability Foundation, the Center for Renewing America, and several others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;Our goal is to better serve the conservative movement by putting the right people in the right positions to be the most effective. For people new to DC or looking to advance their professional development we offer a variety of training to help staff be successful,&#8221; the organization\u2019s website states. <\/span>\t<\/p>\n<p><span>Job bank records accessed and viewed by the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> included the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-romney-cotton-minimum-wage-plan-is-anti-conservative-and-embraces-the-logic-of-the-left\/\" title=\"The Romney\/Cotton Minimum Wage Plan Is Anti-Conservative And Embraces The Logic Of The Left\">social security number<\/a> of an Air Force veteran; security clearance level information for dozens of job-hunters; and the names of private clients of major public affairs firms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The job bank documents have been accessible on the Amazon server since at least last summer, according to records reviewed by the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. The information is viewable by anyone who has the direct URL or who has access to online web scraping software.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), a right-wing group overseeing recruitment for Capitol Hill and allied nonprofits, has inadvertently exposed sensitive personal information of applicants in its online &#8220;jobs bank.&#8221; The breach included data from members of the U.S. intelligence community, congressional aides, and former Trump administration officials<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":2224296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/MixCollage-18-Apr-2024-02-02-PM-9499.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2224295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/MixCollage-18-Apr-2024-02-02-PM-9499.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2224295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2224296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2224295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2224295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2224295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}