A Huge Data Breach Exposes 200 Million Americans: The Things You Should Know
A colossal data breach has exposed the personal information of more than 200 million Americans. It is still not clear where the data has come from. Here’s how you can save yourself:
According to a research team of CyberNews, the personal information of more than 200 million Americans has been exposed in a data breach following the long list of incidents related to data breach over the last few months and years. The research team of CyberNews further revealed that more than 800 gigabytes of personal information had been owned by an unidentified party that was spread on the server, which is accessible to the public. The recent data breach has exposed the vulnerability of online data security. It has also aggravated the concern of people and the agencies regarding the privacy of online data spread across multiple devices.
Meanwhile, the concern and distrust of people unveiled when the Verily started project Baseline, which was designed to help the people in getting tested for the health outbreak. The online project required the people to open the Google account for getting tested, which increased the concerns regarding the privacy of data among the people. Most of the people refrained from creating any Google account as they were fearful of the history of Google on data collection. The project was inaugurated at White House in a press conference in which Donald Trump said that Google is willing to assist the government of the USA in making the ordinary people aware of the deadly health outbreak. But, most of the people were unwilling to cooperate with the project as they were frightened regarding data privacy cases turned up in the last few months.
Meanwhile, the users have seen that many of the recent data breaches and incidents of leaks were involved the apps used in Android phones and social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The severity of the issue could be measure with the fact that even the privacy-protecting tools which boast of securing the online information of the users without compromising with it were found guilty of data breach and leaks. Such privacy protection tools also include the ad-blockers and the VPNs, which were more than 20 in number and were found collecting the data of the users secretly.
The information contained by the leaked data
If we talk about the latest data breach exposing the personal information of more than 200 million users then, it became clear that it is quite different from the other cases. In this case, the researchers have no idea that actually from where the data has come from. According to the reports, the unsecured database has contained the detailed information of the users in the US, which includes their names with titles exposing the individuals, dates of births, phone numbers, email ids, credit ratings, and detailed records of mortgage and tax payments. The information further extended and covered the detail addresses of the mortgaged real estate and home along with the exact location and the exact number of the children revealing their genders. The database also has the data which explains the personal interests of the individuals, the charitable, political, and religious donations given the individuals and the investments made by the individuals.
Meanwhile, the team of CyberNews has said that it seems that most of the data have been originated from the census bureau of the United States. The team came to this conclusion as the codes appearing in the database are quite similar to the one used in the classifications of the Bureau. Amidst all, the database has also included the two folders, which is not related to the personal records of the users that the research team found in the main folder. The other two folders are revealing the emergency calling numbers of the US-based fire department and also a list of almost 74 share stations of the bike. It is worthwhile to mention that at present, the owner of all these 74 bike share stations is Lyft.
The research team found that the call logs of the fire department have included the detailed information of the locations, times, dates, and some other archives of emergency calling numbers far dated to the year 2010. The research team said that after going through the list of 74 bike share stations and the additional information, it seems that the data might have been stolen from somewhere. However, the research shows its inability to say anything regarding the origin point of the data but said that might be the data was used by multiple parties.
Aida Martin has diverse interests that range from writing to video games. She has always had a strong passion for writing. She likes to write about games, tech events, security, and whitepapers. Her vast and varied knowledge aided by her supreme writing skills, have made her a powerful writer at norton.com/setup.
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