An unsecured database on Microsoft servers holds information on over 80 million households...
Security researchers have reportedly uncovered an unsecured database containing the details of over 80 million U.S. households, including names and addresses.
The database is hosted on a Microsoft cloud server, but its owner is unknown, according to vpnMentor. Other exposed details include ages, incomes, birthdays, and marital status, though some aspects -- such as income -- are coded, meaning they'd have to be interpreted. Names, ages, and addresses are out in the open.
Credit cards and Social Security numbers are absent, but the included data could potentially be used to commit identity fraud.
All of the listed people are over 40, many of them senior citizens.
The vpnMentor researchers are asking for help identifying the responsible party. Researchers said they suspect the database is owned by an insurance, healthcare, or mortgage firm, but it's missing data that brokers and banks would normally need, such as account numbers and payment methods.
Exposed databases have become a concern for researchers and the public alike, thanks in no small part to security breaches at companies like Yahoo, Facebook, and Equifax. Facebook has admitted to multiple such breaches, most recently a March incident where "hundreds of millions" of plain-text passwords were found unprotected on internal servers.
The database is hosted on a Microsoft cloud server, but its owner is unknown, according to vpnMentor. Other exposed details include ages, incomes, birthdays, and marital status, though some aspects -- such as income -- are coded, meaning they'd have to be interpreted. Names, ages, and addresses are out in the open.
Credit cards and Social Security numbers are absent, but the included data could potentially be used to commit identity fraud.
All of the listed people are over 40, many of them senior citizens.
The vpnMentor researchers are asking for help identifying the responsible party. Researchers said they suspect the database is owned by an insurance, healthcare, or mortgage firm, but it's missing data that brokers and banks would normally need, such as account numbers and payment methods.
Exposed databases have become a concern for researchers and the public alike, thanks in no small part to security breaches at companies like Yahoo, Facebook, and Equifax. Facebook has admitted to multiple such breaches, most recently a March incident where "hundreds of millions" of plain-text passwords were found unprotected on internal servers.
Comments
There is a famous old story about TWA, their corporate computer system was bogged down and needed a multi-million dollar upgrade. They did an analysis and the bulk of the data processing was printing huge reports, some of them a foot tall of folded computer paper. Someone had a bright idea, they announced that all the report printers were down, and no reports would be available until further notice. They waited for complaints, it turns out only 5% of the users called to demand urgent reports. The other 95% were just using the huge reports to sit on their desk to make themselves look important. That 95% was banned from future reports and the upgrade was no longer necessary.
So, no on the first part, but agree with the second.