The criminal records of millions of Americans were just leaked online

Date:
Fri, 24 May 2024 16:00:20 +0000

Description:
No one knows where the data came from, but researchers suspect it might be a PR stunt.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Sensitive information on millions of convicted felons just leaked online.

This Wednesday, cybersecurity researchers from Malwarebytes published a blog post detailing that a group of cybercriminals leaked a database containing criminal records of millions of Americans. The database is said to contain 70 million rows of data.

Given how Malwarebytes worded the announcement, we can assume its researchers did not have direct access to this database. Still, it was said that it contained peoples full names, dates of birth, known aliases, postal
addresses, dates of arrest, dates of conviction, sentences, and more.
Building a new leaks site

The database is quite fresh, holding data generated between 2020 and 2024. Each row represents a single felony, not a record of all the crimes a person may have committed, Malwarebytes's Pieter Arntz confirmed to Toms Guide .

The data was leaked by two known cybercriminals - EquationCorp and USDoD.

The latter, according to the researchers, is a high-profile player in the field of data leaks, allegedly closely associated with Connor Fitzpatrick,
AKA Pompompurin.

For those who havent been paying attention, Pompompurin was the owner and master administrator of BreachForums, the worlds most popular underground forum for sharing stolen and leaked data, malware, and other warez. The forum was recently dismantled , and Fitzpatrick arrested.

Malwarebytes claims USDoD is planning on building a new leak forum similar to BreachForums, and that pushing this data out there could be a PR stunt to
draw attention and raise interest in the new site.

At this time, it is unknown from whom the hackers stole this data, when, or how.

In any case, our American readers with a criminal history should pay
attention to the emails theyre getting, especially if they mention criminal convictions, carry attachments and links, or demand urgent action. Hackers
are likely to exploit the database in phishing and social engineering
attacks. More from TechRadar Pro BreachForums hacking forum admin sentenced
to 20 years supervised release Here's a list of the best firewalls today
These are the best endpoint protection tools right now



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/the-criminal-records-of-millions-of-ame ricans-were-just-leaked-online


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)