A hacker claims to have obtained a wealth of personal information on one billion Chinese individuals from the Shanghai police, which, if accurate, would be one of the largest data breaches in history, according to cyber experts.
Last week, an anonymous internet user identified as "ChinaDan" posted on the hacker forum Breach Forums offering to sell the more than 23 terabytes (TB) of data for 10 bitcoin, almost $200,000.
"In 2022, the Shanghai National Police (SHGA) database was leaked. This database contains many TB of data and information on Billions of Chinese citizen," the post said.
"Databases contain information on 1 Billion Chinese national residents and several billion case records, including: name, address, birthplace, national ID number, mobile number, all crime/case details."
On Monday, the Shanghai administration and police department did not reply to demands for comment.
No one in the media was able to contact the self-proclaimed hacker, ChinaDan. The tweet, however, was widely debated on China's Weibo and WeChat social media platforms over the weekend, with many users concerned that it was genuine.
By Sunday afternoon, the hashtag "data leak" had been removed from Weibo.
In a Twitter post, Kendra Schaefer, head of tech policy research at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China, stated that it was "difficult to separate truth from rumour mill."
If the hacker's alleged evidence originated from the Ministry of Public Security, it would be bad for "a variety of reasons," according to Schaefer.
"Most obviously it would be among biggest and worst breaches in history," she said.
Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng announced on Monday that the cryptocurrency exchange had increased user verification processes after the business's threat intelligence spotted the sale of records belonging to 1 billion Asian people on the dark web.
He stated on Twitter that a leak could have occurred as a result of "a problem in an Elastic Search deployment by a (government) agency," but did not specify if he was referring to the Shanghai police case. He did not react promptly to a request for additional comment.
Following public complaints over mismanagement and misuse, China has committed to tighten security of internet user data privacy, requiring its tech titans to ensure safer storage.
China implemented new regulations last year restricting the handling of personal information and data generated within its borders.
(Source:www.businessworld.in)
Last week, an anonymous internet user identified as "ChinaDan" posted on the hacker forum Breach Forums offering to sell the more than 23 terabytes (TB) of data for 10 bitcoin, almost $200,000.
"In 2022, the Shanghai National Police (SHGA) database was leaked. This database contains many TB of data and information on Billions of Chinese citizen," the post said.
"Databases contain information on 1 Billion Chinese national residents and several billion case records, including: name, address, birthplace, national ID number, mobile number, all crime/case details."
On Monday, the Shanghai administration and police department did not reply to demands for comment.
No one in the media was able to contact the self-proclaimed hacker, ChinaDan. The tweet, however, was widely debated on China's Weibo and WeChat social media platforms over the weekend, with many users concerned that it was genuine.
By Sunday afternoon, the hashtag "data leak" had been removed from Weibo.
In a Twitter post, Kendra Schaefer, head of tech policy research at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China, stated that it was "difficult to separate truth from rumour mill."
If the hacker's alleged evidence originated from the Ministry of Public Security, it would be bad for "a variety of reasons," according to Schaefer.
"Most obviously it would be among biggest and worst breaches in history," she said.
Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng announced on Monday that the cryptocurrency exchange had increased user verification processes after the business's threat intelligence spotted the sale of records belonging to 1 billion Asian people on the dark web.
He stated on Twitter that a leak could have occurred as a result of "a problem in an Elastic Search deployment by a (government) agency," but did not specify if he was referring to the Shanghai police case. He did not react promptly to a request for additional comment.
Following public complaints over mismanagement and misuse, China has committed to tighten security of internet user data privacy, requiring its tech titans to ensure safer storage.
China implemented new regulations last year restricting the handling of personal information and data generated within its borders.
(Source:www.businessworld.in)
