A huge exposed database contained billions of emails, passwords, and millions of Social Security numbers, researchers say it could fuel identity theft.
San Francisco: Researchers found a big database online with lots of people’s private data. The database had about 3 billion email addresses and passwords. It also had about 2.7 billion records that included Social Security numbers.
Why This Database Is Dangerous
People often use the same passwords on many websites. If someone gets your password from this database, they might try to use it on your bank account or email. Social Security numbers are even more valuable because they never change. Bad people use them to steal your identity and pretend to be you.
How the Researchers Found the Problem
A cybersecurity company called UpGuard found the database in January. They could not find who owned it, so they told the company that was storing it. The company removed the database five days later. The researchers only looked at a small sample of the data because it was so big and private.
What You Should Know
Some of the data looks old, from about 2015. Passwords in the database showed people liked singers like Taylor Swift and One Direction back then. The researchers talked to some people whose data was in the breach. They found that many had not yet been hacked, which means the stolen information was sitting there unused until now. Anyone could be at risk if their information was in this database.