A major Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) firm from Mexico kept an unprotected database containing sensitive information on hundreds of thousands of users online for anyone to view.
A report from cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler, who discovered the archive and reported his findings to Website Planet, noted the database, available to anyone who knew where to look, contained 769 million records.
These records contained secrets and personally identifiable information, such as API keys, secret keys, bank account numbers, tax identification numbers, and email addresses. The database is 395GB heavy, and belongs to ClickBalance, a software provider offering various cloud-based business services that help with administration automation, accounting, inventory, payroll, and more.
Disruptive potential
Website Planet describes ClickBalance as one of Mexico’s largest ERP technology providers, and as soon as Fowler found the archive and pinpointed its owner, he reached out to the company, which locked it down “within hours.”
Still, it is not known if any malicious players had already discovered it, and whether or not they already used the data in any of their campaigns. Only a detailed forensic investigation can determine that, Fowler argues.
While obtaining tax identification numbers, or bank account numbers, is certainly dangerous, and allows cybercriminals to run identity theft campaigns, stealing active email addresses is arguably more valuable, since it allows them to mount phishing attacks through which they can deploy malware, and even ransomware.
Unprotected databases continue to be one of the most common causes of data leaks, despite their disruptive potential. Many large enterprises and government organizations were found to have kept online databases without any safeguards. In one such instance, the entire Brazilian population had their personal information leaked.
In early January 2024, researchers from Cybernews discovered an unprotected database that held personal information on approximately 223 million Brazilian citizens.
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