After routine maintenance did not restore a firewall, a Sacramento Bee database left more than 19.5 million voter files publicly accessible and exposed the names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of 52,873 subscribers, Gizmodo reports. The database was also reportedly compromised by an apparent ransomware attack. Analysts at the Kromtech Security Center first discovered the breach and alerted the paper. In a statement from the Sacramento Bee’s parent company, The McClatchy Company, a spokesperson said the paper had “strict protocols in place to ensure the security of our data” and that it was “aware of a ransomware attack on one of our servers that was located outside our core IT structure,” adding, “We know that in databases apparently targeted, no personally identifiable information, as defined by the State of California, was involved.” The organization did not pay the ransom, the report states. 
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