Nevada takes medical marijuana database offline after data breach affects dispensary applicants

(WashTimes) Nevada took its medical marijuana program database off the internet this week after the Social Security numbers and other sensitive information involving thousands of dispensary applicants were inadvertently leaked online. A vulnerability affecting a web portal used by the state’s medical weed program resulted in more than 11,700 dispensary applications being publicly accessible prior to the database being disabled this week, security researcher Justin Schafer said Wednesday. Mr. Schafer said he discovered the bug after a simple Google search Tuesday evening resulted in him stumbling upon a trove of unsecured data maintained by the state’s Medical Marijuana Program. Each of the over 11,700 exposed files contains the names, phone numbers, home addresses, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and complete Social Security numbers of marijuana dispensary applicants according to the Daily Dot, a tech website that confirmed the researcher’s discovery this week upon recreating his Google search.