SC Magazine said that according to a report in the Hong Kong Free Press, twenty-two people were rounded up in China’s southern Zhejiang province, 20 of them employees of a local direct sales and outsourcing company. The gang allegedly siphoned customer data, including user names, phone numbers and Apple IDs, from an internal company computer network. Then they sold it, charging between USD 1.50 and USD 26.50 for elements of the illegally obtained assets. Furthermore, they reportedly earned around USD 7.4 million in the ploy, the online publication continues.
A four-month investigation by police across four provinces resulted in the arrests. The incident both reaffirms the value and vulnerability of personal data. However, new privacy regulations like EUs GDPR and Chinas Cyber Law mandate new requirements to map user data in the organizations to better safeguard its security and privacy.
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