Giant database leak exposes data on 220 million Brazilians

On January 19th, 2021, the dfndr lab, PSafe’s cybersecurity laboratory, reported a leak in a Brazilian database that may have exposed the CPF number and other confidential information of millions of people.

According to the cybersecurity experts, who use artificial intelligence techniques to identify malicious links and fake news, the leaked data they have found contains detailed information on 104 million vehicles and about 40 million companies. Overall, the leak poses a risk to close to 220 million Brazilians.

The personal data contained in the affected database includes names, birthdates and individual taxpayer registry identification, with distinct vehicle information, including license plate numbers, municipality, colour, make, model, year of manufacture, engine capacity and even the type of fuel used. The breach both affects almost all Brazilian citizens, as well as authorities.

In a press release, the director of the dfndr lab, Emilio Simoni, explained that the biggest risk following this data leak is that this data will be used in phishing scams, in which a person is induced to provide more personal information on a fake page.

In their statement, PSafe does not disclose either the name of the company involved or how the information was leaked, whether it was due to a security breach, hacker invasion or easy access. However, regardless of the cause of the leak, the new Brazilian Data Protection Security Law provides for fines that can reach R $ 50 million for an infraction of this type.