In our world today, we store and organize nearly everything about ourselves online. In fact, it’s not very difficult to find out about yourself through a simple Google search. With this ease of access, there are also many risks that follow. Of those, hackers earn their rank near the top. Wired recently reported that up to 1.2 Billion people had personal information exposed publicly on an unsecured server.
This massive number is supposedly the second largest data exposure of all time. Not only are more and more people storing personal information online but they are also creating personal accounts on services like Facebook. In the initial report, Wired wrote that user data on an open Elasticsearch server, leaked. This data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, and even Facebook and LinkedIn profile information.
Extremely sensitive information like social security and credit card numbers are safe from this breach. However, the concern about identity theft is still high. Luckily, the exposed server shut down within a couple hours, leaving the FBI with a full investigation. The report is that Bob Diachenko and Vinny Troia first discovered the massive leak in October. At this time, no one is exactly sure who exposed the personal data and who owns the specific server.
In all, this scare may be a fair warning as we continue to shape our lives around the online world. A breach of this size is fairly uncommon and may have been done by a group of individuals. Lastly, read more about the data breach here.