Binance’s threat research finds more than 1 billion resident records for sale on the dark web

  • More than 1 billion resident records reportedly from China have been at the mercy of hackers, Shanghai faces the biggest database leak.
  • People are looking up to Web 3.0 with hopes in order to solve the prevailing data privacy issues.

Online user data has always been at the mercy of companies who control it. Data theft incidents have been on the rise recently across industries and sectors. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance recently conducted threat research and found some glaring details.

On Sunday, July 3, Binance CEO ChangePeng Zhao shared that Binance’s threat intelligence recently found that more than 1 billion resident records have been available for sale. As CZ tweeted:

Our threat intelligence detected 1 billion resident records for sell in the dark web, including name, address, national id, mobile, police and medical records from one asian country. Likely due to a bug in an Elastic Search deployment by a gov agency. This has impact on hacker detection/prevention measures, mobile numbers used for account take overs, etc.

Although the Binance CEO didn’t name the Asia country, reports suggest that the data breach could be in China. As per reports, Shanghai faced the largest breach of user data privacy yet. As per Breached.to;

In 2022, the Shanghai National Police (SHGA) database was leaked. This database contains many TB of data and information on Billions of Chinese citizens.

Binance CEO CZ also added that they are enhancing security measures on the platform. “It is important for all platforms to enhance their security measures in this area. @Binance has already stepped up verifications for users potentially affected. Stay #SAFU,” he added. 

Will Web3 help in solving data privacy issues?

Everyone has been looking up to Web 3.0 with huge hopes of solving data privacy issues. Kenny, a contributor at Manta Network, the Privacy Hub for Web3 built on Polkadot, explains the existing challenges with on-chain privacy.

Before getting Web 3.0 to a billion users, Kenny adds that it is essential we put the right foundations for Web 3.0. Thus, he pitches for something such as self-sovereign privacy. Kenny adds that as of the current state, Web 3 is far from solving privacy issues. Kenny added:

Web3 is perfect hunting ground for exploiters. As use cases continue to emerge in web3, on-chain data is no longer just about transactions. It’s about what you do–your identity. Every dapp you interact with, what you do in those dapps… All recorded and publicly available. We need to elevate the conversation and seriousness of on-chain privacy. Let’s fight for a better web3. 

Data privacy and security threats have been of huge concern in recent times. These concerns have been even more prominent in the crypto space amid several hacks. On Sunday, July 3, hackers took over the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the British Army while promoting NFT scams. As per Reuters, the British army has regained control over these accounts and launched an investigation into the matter.