A Netherlands-based hacker accessed and provided to promote the complete title, tackle and date of start of nearly everybody in Austria, police mentioned Wednesday.
A person believed to be the hacker provided the information on the market in a web-based discussion board in May 2020, presenting it as “the full name, gender, complete address and date of birth of presumably every citizen” in Austria, police mentioned in a press release, including that investigators had confirmed its authenticity.
The trove comprised near 9 million units of knowledge, police mentioned. Austria’s inhabitants is roughly 9.1 million. The hacker had additionally put “similar data sets” from Italy, the Netherlands and Colombia up on the market, Austrian police mentioned, including that they didn’t have additional particulars.
The Austrian data is so-called registration knowledge – fundamental data together with a present tackle that residents are required to offer to the authorities.
“Since this data was freely available on the Internet, it must absolutely be assumed that these registration data are, in full or in part, irrevocably in the hands of criminals,” the police mentioned, including that unknown folks had been believed to have paid for the information.
The 25-year-old suspect arrested in an Amsterdam condo was recognized to worldwide police and is below investigation by the Dutch police and judicial authorities, Austrian police mentioned. A spokesman added that the assertion was solely revealed now in order to not hinder these investigations.
The police didn’t elaborate on the implications for Austrians’ knowledge safety.
