Hacker Exposes Data of 6 Million Chileans

Who Breached: Chilean Government
Number Affected: 6 million Chileans
Information breached: Identity Card Numbers
How: Hacker

A hacker, known ironically as “Anonymous Coward”, has exposed the personal data of 6 million Chileans.

Police Chief Jaime Jara confirms that the data of 6 million people was stolen on Friday from servers at the Education Ministry, the electoral service and the military. The information was posted briefly (less than 24 hours) online in the comments section of a popular Chilean technology blog, Fayerwayer.com, in three compressed files. Data included identity card numbers (like SSNs), addresses and more.

Despite the fact that the data was quickly removed, it had been linked to by many other websites. Sever sites were re-posting the files almost immediately. The potential exists that the data was downloaded and that it could still appear on additional websites.

The hacker took the data to prove a point. According to a note online, he took it in order to “demonstrate how poorly protected the data in Chile is, and how nobody works to protect it.” The hacker even gave instructions on how to download the information without being traced.

Indeed, the point has been proven. Focus is now on government IT security and lax privacy laws, including the regular selling of election voter data. The news has garnered additional attention since the data contained the information on the daughter of the Chilean president.

A prosecutor, a specialist in high-tech crime, was appointed yesterday to investigate how the hacker gained access to the data. The government has announced plans to strengthen data protection with new legislation.

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Another notable breach this week so far has affected 13,000 Pfizer employees after a company laptop and flash drive were stolen.

Via attrition, AP, ABC, AP Tags: chile, chile hacker, hacker, chilean, breach, data breach, breach government, data