The Shanghai police department is facing the largest data breach in history after hackers claimed that they were able to obtain data on 1 billion Chinese from the police department's database.
Hackers Stole 1 Billion Data from Shanghai Police
According to Reuters, someone with the username ChinaDan posted on an online hacking forum called Breach Forums and offered to sell 24 TB of data.
ChinaDan wrote that the data included information on 1 billion people in China and several billion case records. The hacker was selling them for $200,000 or 10 Bitcoins.
The data includes names, addresses, mobile phone numbers, national identification numbers, and case details.
The Associated Press has seen sample data containing the victims' names, ages, birthdates, and mobile numbers.
One victim was listed as having been born in 2020, with their age listed in the data as 1, suggesting that even the personal information of minors was included in the hack.
Security of Chinese Social Media Platforms
The recent data leak has ignited a discussion on the security of Chinese social media platforms, but censors were quick to prevent citizens from searching for the incident by blocking keywords for "Shanghai data leak."
According to The New York Times, a Weibo user said that they were able to verify some of the personal data leaked online by attempting to search for people on Alipay using their personal information.
The said user even warned others that there might be more phone scams in the future. Another Weibo user commented that the leak means that there is a lack of privacy, and it is "horrifying."
Experts stated that this is the largest data breach in history.
Kendra Schaefer, a partner for technology at policy research firm Trivium China, said that it is "hard to parse truth from the rumor mill," but she confirmed that the file does exist.
Michael Gazeley, the managing director at Hong Kong-based security firm Network Box, said that data leaks are common.
Gazeley added that there are 12 billion compromised accounts posted on the Dark Web, and that is more than the total number of people in the world. He also said that most data leaks usually come from the United States.
Security firm Sopho's research scientist Chester Wisniewski said that the latest data breach is a major hit to the Chinese government and that it was "embarrassing for them. He said that the political harm would outweigh the damage to the victims whose personal information was leaked online.
Wisniewski also said that most of the data is similar to what several advertising companies that run banner ads on social media platforms would have.
Wisniewski reminded the public that once hackers get data and put them online, it can no longer be removed.
Leaked personal information is "forever out there," and if someone thinks that their information was part of the latest attack in China, they have to assume that it is forever available to anyone online.
Victims should be taking extra precautions to protect themselves from scammers, he said.
The Chinese government has not revealed what they plan to do to help the victims of the hack or if they've started the investigation to catch the hackers.
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Written by Sophie Webster
