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IT Blog Post: Data Leaks
No one is perfectly safe from user data leaks in the 21st century. Security breaches make the headlines often enough to raise questions regarding the consequences for users and companies affected by them.
One of the most recent big user data leaks happened in March of this year at TransUnion. The largest credit bureau in South Africa that maintains both consumer and business data,[1] says at least 3 million South Africans were impacted by this user data leak. A Brazilian group going by the name of N4ughtySecTU took responsibility for this attack, claiming that someone at TransUnion was negligent enough to set the system password to – you guessed it – “password”.[2]
Whether that was the case or not, the consequences for the users whose data got leaked can vary from rather harmless spam emails (in case the information gets sold to the ad databases) to the users’ information popping up on the dark web market, known for its illegal activity. It could also result in phishing, when the criminals will try to use the leaked user data to steal financial details, such as banking info, and gain access to their money that way.[3]
Sometimes, however, like in the case of TransUnion, the hackers do it for cyber extortion: the hackers will blackmail the company for money in exchange for the data being returned to the company. This is a very common strategy and companies have to deal with major profit losses due to that. N4ughtySecTU, for example, demanded $15 million in exchange for a guarantee that they would not publish the records.[4] And a similar case allegedly happened to T-Mobile in August 2021, when it confirmed that the personal data of more than 54 million of its users got compromised by hackers.[5]
In order to protect the company’s reputation from the extensive damage it is likely to suffer due to a user data leak,[6] it will often pair up with a security company. T-Mobile, for example, chose the cybersecurity firm Mandiant to prove to its customers that the mistake was acknowledged and that work to prevent it from happening again is getting done.[7]
Bibliography:
[1] https://www.transunion.co.za/about-us/company-history
[2] https://www.americanbanker.com/news/transunion-south-africa-hacked-by-threat-actor-n4ughtysectu
[3] http://philstat.org.ph/index.php/MSEA/article/view/50
[4] http://ijns.jalaxy.com.tw/contents/ijns-v15-n5/ijns-2013-v15-n5-p390-396.pdf
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