Illustration of personal data on the Internet.
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SEBASTIEN SALOM-GOMIS / SIPA
A massive data breach is causing concern in Brazil after a hacker managed to acquire the personal data of more than 220 million citizens, reports
Numerama
.
The security company PSafe identified this major leak on January 19.
The
Tecnoblog
site
then discovered that a hacker had already downloaded this data in August 2019 and that it had been posted on an easily accessible forum.
These data, which relate to practically the entire population, were offered partly free of charge and the rest for retail sale.
Lots of critical information
If this incident worries the authorities so much, it is both because of the number of data but also of their quality: the hacker managed to recover 37 separate databases.
These contain valuable information, in particular the “Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas” (CPF) which is the equivalent of the tax number, which raises the risk of fraud or identity theft.
Many other data are available: name, first name, date of birth, surname of both parents, marital status, level of education, email, telephone number, address, income level, employer, as well as financial data, lists in particular the specialized media.
This nationwide leak raises fears of the massive development of scams with techniques such as phishing or ransom demand via malware.
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Hacker
Brazil
Private life
Pirate
Personal data