Dutch hacker obtained, sold virtually all Austrians’ (and Dutch and Colombian?) personal data

A Dutch hacker arrested in November obtained and offered for sale the full name, address and date of birth of virtually everyone in Austria, the Alpine nation’s police said on Wednesday.

A user believed to be the hacker offered the data for sale in an online forum in May 2020, presenting it as “the full name, gender, complete address and date of birth of presumably every citizen” in Austria, police said in a statement, adding that investigators had confirmed its authenticity.

The trove comprised close to nine million sets of data, police said. Austria’s population is roughly 9.1 million. The hacker had also put “similar data sets” from Italy, the Netherlands and Colombia up for sale, Austrian police said, adding that they did not have further details.

[…]

The police did not elaborate on the consequences for Austrians’ data security.

Source: Dutch hacker obtained virtually all Austrians’ personal data, police say | Reuters

Robin Edgar

Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft

 robin@edgarbv.com  https://www.edgarbv.com