A recent research by Cybernews has uncovered a widespread data leak that affects the personal information of Brazilians. The leak involves a copy of Elasticsearch, a popular tool used for searching and analyzing large volumes of data. The leak is not tied to any specific company or organization, making it challenging to trace the source.
On a cloud server, a cluster was discovered containing a vast amount of personal data, including full names, dates of birth, addresses, and CPF (Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas) numbers, which are 11-digit taxpayer identifiers in Brazil.
The severity of the leak is evident from the number of leaked records, which exceeds 223 million. This suggests that the leak potentially impacts the entire population of Brazil. Although the data is no longer available to the public, the concern remains that criminals could have obtained it and use it for personal data theft, fraud, and targeted cybercrime. The consequences for victims could include financial losses, hacked accounts, and other serious repercussions. The scale of this leak significantly amplifies the potential harm.
Another recent cyberattack incident was reported by Xfinity, a service provider of cable television and internet services. In December, Xfinity disclosed that their systems had been breached in October, compromising the data of 35,879,455 individuals.