Nearly one billion people in China had their personal data leaked, and it's been online for more than a year
CNN
A massive online database apparently containing the personal information of up to one billion Chinese citizens was left unsecured and publicly accessible for more than a year -- until an anonymous user in a hacker forum offered to sell the data and brought it to wider attention last week.
The leak could be one of the biggest ever recorded in history, cybersecurity experts say, highlighting the risks of collecting and storing vast amounts of sensitive personal data online -- especially in a country where authorities have broad and unchecked access to such data.
The vast trove of Chinese personal data had been publicly accessible via what appeared to be an unsecured backdoor link -- a shortcut web address that offers unrestricted access to anyone with knowledge of it -- since April 2021, according to LeakIX, a site that detects and indexes exposed databases online.