Not all of the personal and financial information that ends up online is the result of a data breach carried out by hackers. Instead, there are also data leaks where sensitive info is exposed as a result of negligence when a database is left unsecured without a password.
As discovered by the security team at LEAKD, 5 million U.S. credit card details and other sensitive data was found in an AWS S3 bucket that could have been accessed by anyone online. Just like with the best cloud storage, an S3 bucket is a virtual file folder stored in the cloud that’s often used by businesses to store customer data.
While we currently don’t know who was behind this leak, from the screenshots seen by LEAKD, it appears to have come from a phishing operation. Normally, this stolen data would be for hackers only but by forgetting to protect it with a password, anyone with the necessary know-how could have accessed this information.
Here’s everything you need to know about this major data leak along with the steps you should take to secure your digital life if you believe that your credit card details and other personal data might have been compromised.
