Hacker says he stole data from billions of Chinese people

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 calls himself according to Reuters ChinaDan. It is not known who is behind the pseudonym. The hacker has posted a post on the forum Breach Forums in which he offers the data for 10 bitcoins. At the current exchange rate, that’s about 200,000 euros. ChinaDan says the data comes from a database of the National Police in Shanghai. It would involve 23 terabytes of data from at least one billion Chinese. In addition to names, addresses and places of birth, that would also include their national identification numbers and mobile phone numbers.

It is not known how authentic or current the data is. Different media, like The Guardian, have tried to verify samples from the data, but concluded 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.