A hacker from the Netherlands gained access and offered to sell the full names, addresses and dates of birth of virtually all Austrians, police said on Wednesday.
In May 2020, a user believed to be a hacker put the data up for sale on an online forum, presenting it as “the full name, gender, full address and date of birth of allegedly every citizen” of Austria, according to a police statement. adding that investigators had confirmed its authenticity.
The treasury contained about nine million data sets, police said. The population of Austria is approximately 9.1 million people. The hacker also put “similar datasets” from Italy, the Netherlands and Colombia up for sale, Austrian police said, adding they had no further details.
Austrian information is the so-called registration data – basic information, including the current address, that residents are required to provide to the authorities.
“Since this data was freely available on the Internet, it is absolutely necessary to assume that these registration data are in whole or in part irretrievably in the hands of criminals,” the police said, adding that unknown persons allegedly paid. data.
The 25-year-old suspect, who was arrested in an Amsterdam apartment, was known to international police and is under investigation by Dutch police and the judiciary, Austrian police said. The spokesman added that the statement was only released now so as not to interfere with those investigations.
The police did not elaborate on the security implications of the Austrians’ data.
