Up to 80 million US households had their personal information exposed by an unprotected database. What Happened?On Monday, a pair of security researchers shared their discovery of an unprotected online database containing the personal information of up to 80 million US households.
The personal information found in the huge database, discovered on a cloud server, includes combinations of:
- Physical address (city, state, zip)
- First and last names of individuals in the household
- Age and dates of birth
- Longitude and latitude of the household
Additionally, the database was found to include coded results for: title, gender, marital status, income, homeowner status, dwelling type. Social Security number and payment information was not found in the database.
What Does this mean?A data exposure or data leak is different from a data breach. In a breach, unauthorized access to sensitive information is intentional. In a data exposure like this one, the sensitive information is left out in the open, often because the server was not set up with the proper security.
The security researchers believe the database may belong to an insurance, healthcare, or mortgage company, in part because the data appears to be limited to people over the age of 40. The database has been up and potentially leaking information since February. The cloud storage provider notified the data owner who is responsible for securing it and has taken steps to limit unauthorized access.
About the author: Scott Bernstein is the CEO of Child Recovery International headquartered in the Research Triangle of North Carolina. He has extensive experience as a Counterterrorist Consultant, International Apprehension Operative, Human & Sex Trafficking Expert and a Military and Law Enforcement Trainer. He is available as a Consultant and as a Speaker. In addition to his LinkedIn profile, you can also interact with Scott on his LinkedIn group http://bit.ly/1LMp2hj.
Scott Bernstein is the founder and director of Global Security International. They implement unconventional techniques such as criminal profiling, victimology, behavioral Psychology, Neuropsychology, pre-text art and expert skip tracing. To reach CRI (Child Recovery International), reach them at 984-235-4816 or in writing at usahunt@aol.com.
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