Hacker claims to have stolen billions of Chinese data

An unknown hacker claims to have stolen the personal data of at least a billion Chinese. He offers a database of 23TB on a forum. The data has not yet been verified, but would come from the police in Shanghai.

The hacker names himself according to Reuters ChinaDan. It is unknown who is behind the pseudonym. The hacker has posted a post on the forum Breach Forums in which he offers the data for 10 bitcoin. That is about 200,000 euros at the current exchange rate. ChinaDan says the data comes from a database of the national police in Shanghai. It would concern 23 terabytes of data from at least a billion Chinese. That would include their national identification numbers and mobile phone numbers in addition to names, addresses and places of birth.

It is not known how authentic or up-to-date the data is. Different media, like The Guardian, have tried to verify samples from the data, but conclude that some phone numbers are no longer in use. Reuters was also unable to verify authenticity. Despite this, the Chinese state is trying to suppress news of the possible leak. The hashtags #ChinaDan and #DataLeak have been blocked on Weibo and WeChat.