Over 805 Million Records Leaked from WeChat
"Data Could Be Misused to Track Chinese Citizens' Behavior and Economic Activity"
An unprecedented data breach in China has resulted in the leak of 4 billion personal data records, the largest single incident of its kind to date.
According to Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily, citing the overseas cybersecurity media outlet Cybernews, on June 10 it was reported that the Cybernews research team recently discovered up to 4 billion personal data records, totaling 631 gigabytes (GB), exposed without password protection.
According to the report, the largest leaked database, named 'wechatid_db,' contains more than 805 million records. This data is believed to have been collected from WeChat, the Chinese equivalent of KakaoTalk. The second largest, 'address_db,' holds 780 million records of actual address information.
The third largest, 'bank,' contains more than 630 million financial records, including credit card numbers, dates of birth, names, and phone numbers. The research team pointed out that with access to just these three datasets, hackers could determine a specific user's residence, spending habits, debts, and savings.
Additionally, a database called 'wechatinfo,' containing approximately 577 million records, is highly likely to include WeChat communication logs and user conversations.
A person making a payment with Alipay. This photo is for illustrative purposes only and is unrelated to the article content. Official Alipay Weibo.
Furthermore, the 'zfbkt_db' database, which contains 300 million records, also includes Alipay card and token information. The research team warned that hackers could attempt to activate unauthorized accounts and commit identity theft. The team analyzed that "the database has been carefully collected and managed" and warned that it could be misused to track the behavioral, economic, and social data of nearly all Chinese citizens.
Taiwan Economic Daily reported that Taiwanese citizens are also among the victims.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
