A Sensitive Data Trove of 1.5 Billion Is Openly Available On The Internet
July 16, 2018
With just minimal technical knowledge, anyone can get access to data like medical records, state secrets and information containing personal identifiers, according to a new report devised by the researchers.
According to the stats, around 1.5 Billion sensitive files are up for grabs for anyone who is even a little bit technically sound, and surprisingly around 36% of this sensitive data can be found in the digital hemisphere of European Union.
Even information such as corporate secrets related to which product is going to be released in the market and such relevant information was also found.
It was also mentioned in one instance that a terminal was leaking some super-sensitive information related to their customers such as their credit card information, the location where the transaction occurred, its exact time and date etc.
This report by Digital Shadow was released at a high time when the new privacy law is just on the brink of being implemented which imposes heavy fines of up to 4% of their global revenues if they don’t ensure complete safety of their customers data.
The strategy and research analyst of Digital Shadows, Rafael Amado in discussion with the local news channel said that the sheer quantity of the unprotected data available and its quality was pretty shocking and mind-boggling.
The top countries in this data exposure fiasco are mentioned below:
- Germany
- France
- Italy
- UK
- Netherlands
- Poland
- US
During their research, company was astonished to discover that over half a billion (1,550,447,111) files with the file size of 12 petabytes were openly accessible through different file sharing services having obvious vulnerabilities and loopholes.
This research by Digital Shadow solidifies the fact that there’s a lot of data leakage happening all over the internet which is specifically more alarming for corporates and businesses as any competitor can steal this kind of information and use it for their own benefit or to harm their rivals in the industry.
It is also announced by the Digital Secretary of UK, Matt Hancock that further amendments would be made in the UK’s data protection law to make it more effective in this digital age and giving people more control and authority over their data.