200M Records of US Citizens Leaked in Unprotected Database

guest · Mar 21, 2020

200M Records of US Citizens Leaked in Unprotected Database
Researchers have not determined who owns the database
March 20, 2020
https://www.darkreading.com/cloud/2...leaked-in-unprotected-database/d/d-id/1337377

Researchers discovered an unprotected database holding 800GB of personal user information, including 200 million detailed user records. The entirety of the database was wiped on March 3.
User records inside the database held what appeared to be profiles of US users, according to researchers with Lithuanian research group CyberNews.

"We were shocked by the sheer scale of the data exposed: The combination of personal, demographic and real estate asset data was an absolute goldmine for cybercriminals," the CyberNews team says.
In addition to the main folder of unsecured data, the database contained two more folders seemingly unrelated to the trove of personal records held in the main folder. These folders held the emergence call logs of a US-based fire department, as well as a list of some 74 bike stations that formerly belonged to a bike-share program. The bike-share stations are owned by Lyft.
Click to expand...

CyberNews: Report: unidentified database exposes 200 million Americans

It seems that much of the data on the main folder might have originated from the United States Census Bureau. Certain codes used in the database were either specific to the Bureau or used in the Bureau’s classifications.
While the two smaller folders did not contain any personal information, the call logs from the fire department included dates, times, locations, and other emergency call metadata dating as far back as 2010.

In the best case scenario, the mysterious party was an ethical hacker who simply deleted the data because they couldn’t identify the owner. In the worst case scenario, however, the data has been copied and will be used by cybercriminals to its full destructive potential. Hopefully, it’s the former.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

200M Records of US Citizens Leaked in Unprotected Database

guest Guest

Log in or Sign up

200M Records of US Citizens Leaked in Unprotected Database

guest Guest

Useful Searches