Data on 20 million citizens were found on the deep web. But now the database has been removed from the deep web underground market.
Sensitive personal data, apparently belonging to more than 20 million Taiwanese citizens, has emerged on the deep web market, the threat intelligence service said.
In a blog post, Sable said that the clandestine seller of trophies related to the data breach – “known and reputable” in terms of data authenticity – cited the Household Registration Department of the Home Office as the source of the leak.
However, the Taiwan government denies the violation, claiming that the data was collected from multiple sources and circulated on the deep web for several years.
20 million records in deep web
The 3.5GB database contained citizens’ full names, postal addresses, telephone numbers, government IDs, gender, and dates of birth, Syble said.
“A few weeks ago, our researchers discovered a database leak on the deep web where the well-known and respected actor Toogod deleted the Taiwan Country Home Registry Database containing over 20 million entries,” the company said.
Cyble updated their blog post saying that he shared his findings with the Taiwan Computer Emergency Response Team (Taiwan CERT) and is still investigating the leak.
If Syble’s observations were confirmed, the leak would be one of the largest government data breaches in history.