Hacker auctioning database containing info on 92m

Brazilian citizens

A cyber criminal is claiming to be in possession of a 16GB SQL database that contains personal data of up to 92 million Brazilian citizens. The database is up for auction on various restricted-access underground forums that are frequented by experts in the field.

Information about the auctioning of the massive database was obtained by Bleeping Computer that noted that the database may contain a lot of information concerning the entire tax-paying population of Brazil, virtually making the database a gold mine for hackers who exploit such databases for purposes such as phishing, credential-stuffing, identity theft, and account takeover.

The auctioneer, using the alias X4Crow, is claiming on restricted underground forums that personal information of Brazilian citizens stored in the database includes names, dates of birth, taxpayer IDs, gender, and mother’s names. Using any one of these parameters, they can find out information available about specific persons based on information available in Brazilian national identification documents such as driver’s licenses or ID cards.

“The potential exposure of such a large database of data is worrying, and shows that cybercriminals are becoming more and more motivated by the potential monetary gain of selling personal identifiable information – which has become a kind of currency on the dark market”, says Paul Edon, senior director, technical services at Tripwire.

“Organisations and governmental bodies need to consider going above and beyond the security measures recommended as standard practice, or they will find themselves unprepared. When retaining this kind of data it is critical to choose an encryption solution that not only protects the database instances but also provides protection for data in transit and at rest”, he adds.

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