At least 100 million individuals across the U.S., or almost a third of the country's population, may have had their personal and sensitive information exposed following a leak at background check firm MC2 Data stemming from an unsecured 2.2 TB database, Cybernews reports.
The misconfiguration revealed more than 106 million records with U.S. citizens' private information and over 2.3 million MC2 Data subscribers' data, including names, birthdates, email addresses, phone numbers, encrypted passwords, user agents, IP addresses, property records, legal records, employment history, details regarding family, relatives, and neighbors, and partial payment information, according to Cybernews researchers.
"Such a leak is a goldmine for cybercriminals as it eases access and reduces risk for them, allowing them to misuse these detailed reports more effectively. If anyone else accessed this information, it could spark conflicts in some communities and organizations," said Nazarovas. MC2 Data has yet to respond to the reported data exposure.
