Second Guessing the Shut Down Action of the Democratic National Committee (DNC)

The DNC employs a vendor, NGP VAN, to provide voter data services for the Sanders and Clinton campaigns. It was the expectation of all involved that voter data for the two campaigns was to be kept separate through the use of fire wall technology. Due to a data breach this expectation was not met during a brief period associated with poor practice in patching the voter data software system. What was the change being attempted and what was the urgency to make a change just before the upcoming Democratic debate that led to the short cuts taken?

As happens in such cases, the error had a grievous and consequential outcome in that the voter data software system was required to maintain separation of candidate voter data but failed to do so rendering the software system untrustworthy. This occurred when the software was changed incorrectly and no longer performed its intended function that of assuring separation of candidate voter data. This became visible to others when the revised software systems was paced into operation without adequate testing, verification, and validation of its most essential function, assuring separation of candidate voter data.

The proximate cause of the data breach was NGP VAN and the operation of its software patch practice, one that apparently permitted invalid software functionality to go live into the wild. A properly exercised industry best software patch practice would have employed verification and validation testing of the software change before hand. Whatever followed is a consequence of the NGP VAN operation of its software patch practice in this instance.

As far as what transpired following the detection of the defective software patch, the use of the voter data facility should have been shutdown to all users, both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns, and the state of the system should have been locked down subject to investigation of the cause and determination of the fix. All operations should have been put on hold.

Conclusions derived from any claimed use of the NGP VAN software system following the placement of the incorrectly patched software functionality should be viewed with suspicion since it is acknowledged that the NGP VAN software system was not operating as intended and the state of the software system during that period remains indeterminate and untrustworthy. Fairness would dictate that the unstable voter data software system should have been shut down to both campaigns until the system was shown to be trustworthy. Allowing access to one campaign and not the other is unreasonable beyond the tipping point suggesting the possibility of other factors at work here.

Here again the use and misuse of technology have ensnared our politicians. Beyond that, unwilling to let any crisis to go to waste, the DNC improperly amplified a routine incident into a situation with winners and losers and irreconcilable conflict... all this just before a national debate. To what end?