An unidentified computer hacker going by the alias ChinaDan, claims to have penetrated the Shanghai National Police (SHGA) computer system and stolen a massive database that includes Chinese citizens’ personal information.
What happened: ChinaDan posted on Breach Forum on the dark seeking for people willing to buy what he claims is 23 terabytes worth of data that could be valuable to intelligence agencies. The cost: 10 Bitcoins (CRYPTO: BTC) with a value of approximately $210,000 at time of writing.
According to ChinaDan, the database contained key information such as names, mobile phone numbers, national ID numbers, birthplaces and ages of about 1 billion Chinese citizens.
“In 2022, the Shanghai National Police database was leaked. This database contains many terabytes of data and information on billions of Chinese citizens,” the hacker’s post on the forum says.
According to CNN, a sample of more than two dozen of the 750,000 data entries from the database were verified as legitimate. CNN, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal called some of the phone numbers listed in the database, and the people they called confirmed personal details found in the files.
Two days after the post was shared, the moderator of the forum shared a thread telling its Chinese users the data was no longer available and any posts related to the topic had been deleted.
No Chinese government officials have responded to ChinaDan’s claim, but at a recent State Council meeting, Premier Li Keqiang, a prominent politician, stressed the need for the Chinese government to protect information.
Chinese government bodies must “defend information security … to protect personal information, privacy and confidential corporate information” so people can feel secure when submitting data for certain public services, says a statement summarizing the meeting.
The statement did not disclose specific security issues or data breaches, but some people believe it could be addressing the recent data leak.
The data breach came just a few months after a cache of police records from the Xinjiang region was leaked to media outlets by researcher Adrian Zenz. The records contain over 5,000 photos and documents of the Chinese government targeting people of Uyghurs ethnic origin for their race and Islamic faith.
Why it matters: The data leak could cause serious national security risks for the nation, according to an article published by Cybernews. “The availability of personal information on a large chunk of China’s population could cause long-term problems such as identity theft and targeted phishing attacks, affecting millions of people,” the article said.
According to BlackCloak CEO Chris Pierson, the leaked criminal records could also expose individuals to a range of risks, including harassment, extortion and retribution.
Featured photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pixabay
© 2022 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.