Data leak hits 15 million users worldwide: 580 gigabytes of sensitive information exposed
Created: 05/09/2022 15:33
By: Laura May
The information was collected using the Snowplow Analytics data analysis tool.
© IMAGO/Silas Stein
Incorrect server settings allowed data from 15 million users to be collected and disclosed – IP addresses, websites visited and location information are affected.
Munich – 580 gigabytes of data were disclosed by two servers of the Elastic Search search engine.
According to a report by “Website Planet”, the data analysis tool Snowplow Analytics revealed sensitive data from 15 million users.
Information such as IP addresses, websites visited and locations are affected.
The WhatsApp messenger service also had problems with criminal data hunters in April.
The Website Planet platform has now published a detailed report on the data theft from the Elastic Search Server.
Based in London, the company specializes in designing and hosting websites.
Data disclosed: The error is in the operator's server settings
The two servers of the Dutch-US company Elastic NV were probably no longer secure due to incorrect server settings by their customers.
"Website Planet" sees no responsibility for the search engine Elastic Search or the data analysis tool Snowplay Analytics - the fault lies with the operators.
User Data Disclosed: Personal data of people around the world
The report by Website Planet does not reveal who the operators, i.e. the responsible company, are.
But one thing is clear: the gap revealed a total of 359,019,902 data records, around 15 million are affected, the amount of data is around 580 gigabytes and the data comes from September and December 2021.
In any case, people all over the world are affected.
The vulnerability makes it easier for cybercriminals to launch attacks on the affected systems.
If you want to protect yourself from digital data attacks, you should use a VPN service.
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