In what is supposed to be a massive data breach in the history of New South Wales(NSW), Australia, driving licenses of over 50,000 populace were leaked online after hackers got access to the information stored on Amazon Cloud Storage services.
Bob Diachenko, the security consultant from Ukraine, got hold of the data after it was being sold online in PDF and JPG file formats as over 109,000 images bought from over 54,000 licenses & related toll gate notices were put on sale by the hackers.
Mr. Bob has cited the leak as ‘very serious’ as he says that the data could be used by fraudsters to drain the bank accounts of driving license users or be applied for credit card loans as the stolen info includes addresses, date of births and contact phone numbers. What if the hacker uses it for purchase of furniture, or for phone or bank account verification…?
“The front and back of the licenses was available for access from a mis-configured Amazon S3 storage bucket and some data containing information related to Roads and Maritime Services Toll Notices was also procured”, said Bob.
NSW Transport department issued a statement early today that they do not keep any toll data on their servers and is working closely with Cyber Security NSW to know the details of severity from depth.
NOTE– The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) may penalize companies or federal organizations when they fail to protect their user data and the fine can range in between $1 million to $200,000 depending on the severity of the data breach.
