Data Leaks

Personal Data of Six Million Chileans Available on the Internet

A hacker broke into government and military servers and stole data

By Traian Teglet, Technology News Editor

12th of May 2008, 12:20 GMT

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Security of personal data is an issue with which all major institutions must deal. With an increasing number of phishing frauds available on the web, the users' personal data are not that safe anymore. A recent

incident demonstrated that the people of Chile are among the most vulnerable. According to the El Mercurio daily, a hacker has broken into Chile's government sites, took the personal data of six million people and posted them on the web.

The six million victims had their names, street and email addresses, telephone numbers, social and educational records posted on a webpage for several hours. It appears that the hacker reached all these pieces of information from the webpages of the Education Ministry, Electoral Service and state-run telephone companies. The leaked data could be read and copied by the readers of FayerWayer, a technology blog from Chile, or the "ElAntro" community website.

The FayeWayer administrator has contacted authorities and the compromised personal data have all been removed. But still, the information was displayed on the site for a considerable amount time, which leads the police to think some users might have downloaded it. There is a possibility that the six million victims still have their personal data available on the Internet. It also appears that information about the president's daughters was among the reported leaked data.

According to the El Mercurio newspaper, the hacker has published the personal information as his way of informing the general public on the low level of security of the government institutions in Chile. The hacker's purposes can be taken as a direct attack to the Chile state authorities that should spent more time trying to prevent this sort of actions. At this moment, the Chilean authorities are undergoing an investigation to find out the means by which the hacker broke into the servers.

TAGS:

data leak | government | security | hacker

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