And hacker group allegedly stole data from the Shanghai police, thereby obtaining the data of more than a billion citizens in China. It seems that the hackers want to sell 23 terabytes of data for 10 bitcoins (just over 190 thousand euros at the moment).
Data stolen from one billion citizens in China, hackers hit Shanghai police
There are in the stolen archive names, addresses, places and dates of birth, as well as telephone numbers and national identity documents. The Wall Street Journal reports that in the data published on the dark web as evidence, there are reports of crimes that date back to 1995. Some reporters in China have also dialed the phone numbers, verifying that the data is indeed genuine.
At the moment it is not clear how the hackers could have entered the police database. Although early reconstructions would suggest they are bassed by a cloud computing company called Aliyun, owned by Alibaba. The company said it is investigating the matter but has not confirmed anything at the moment.
Impossible to understand at the moment the true extent of the breach. But some security experts do know that, if compliant, it would be the colpo most sensational and far-reaching hacker in the history of Chinese cybersecurity.
Chinese authorities are reportedly investigating the matter, but there are currently no comments regarding the attack. For the moment the ‘confirmation’ comes only from hackers, who ensure they have carried out the heist.
The situation is therefore still uncertain. We will update you if more precise information arrives, confirming or denying the claim.