A gross security breach in South Africa has exposed the private information of millions of individuals and businesses. 27 gigabytes of sensitive information is currently floating around waiting to be taken advantage of by cybercriminals.
Data that has been exposed dates as far back as the early 1990s and most of them are bound to be legit. According to Tech Central, information that has been exposed include; property ownership, work history, income, company directorships, personal addresses, age, marital status and about 30-million unique South African identity numbers, as a result of this, exposing sensitive information to the wrong people.
This huge discovery was made by Troy Hunt, the founder of HaveIbeenPwned.com. He is a Microsoft regional director as well as Microsoft’s most valuable professional for developer security. His specialities include Online security, technology and “The Cloud”.
South African followers: I have a very large breach titled "masterdeeds". Names, genders, ethnicities, home ownership; looks gov, ideas?
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) October 17, 2017
According to Troy, he could identify the data to be from a South African source through the personal address found in the data breach.
Confirmed full 13 digit ID numbers (containing birth date) are present https://t.co/1ZUnzuuls4
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) October 17, 2017
Troy Hunt is attempting to identify the source of the database but he suspects that the source of the breach might be governmental.
What Businesses and Individuals Should Learn From This Data Security Breach
You need to understand is that anyone can be hacked. The importance of web security for your business cannot and should not be underestimated. If this data breach happened in South Africa, there is also a probability it happens in Nigeria. While we think Africa is not as technologically forward as Americans, Africans are becoming more involved in the technology space. Due to this, we even have higher risks, as we are not as security conscious with our data.
If you store data online and you have not taken measures to secure your business, YOU ARE AT RISK. Imagine having information that your business considers private and sensitive especially client information exposed for any cyber criminal to leverage on. How will you explain that to your clients? Over the years, there have been many incidents of security breaches that have crumpled many businesses. You do not want it to be your business facing web security crisis.
Read this article and this article that is written by Whogohost’s CEO Toba Obaniyi and learn how to stay secure in a world where everything is online.