So, you think you’re savvy by doing everything online: from arranging car insurance or life insurance to paying your bills. While online transactions are mostly safe these days, sadly there are cyber criminals who’ll always prey on vulnerable customers/consumers.
Read on to find out how 934 000 records of South Africans paying traffic fines online were leaked online recently.
A data dump of note
In late 2017, it was reported that countless South Africans were compromised in a ‘data dump’ that revealed their identity numbers‚ ages‚ locations‚ marital statuses‚ occupations‚ estimated incomes‚ addresses and cellphone numbers. It included personal information of prominent people including Jacob Zuma‚ Malusi Gigaba and Fikile Mbalula.
The data leak mainly impacted users of the traffic fine website, viewfines.co.za.
After some detective work, Australian cyber security researcher Troy Hunt, along with Tefo Mohapi from iAfrikan, discovered that the “data was backed up or posted publicly by one of the companies responsible for traffic fines’ online payments in SA”.
Who is affected?
The leak does not affect all licensed drivers, only those who registered to pay traffic fines online using one or more of the sites providing the service. People who registered to pay traffic fines online have been urged to change their passwords.
“This is yet another reminder of how far our data can spread without our knowledge. In this case‚ the presence of plain-text [unencrypted] passwords poses a serious risk because inevitably‚ those passwords will unlock many of the other accounts that victims of the breach use. This one incident has likely already led to multiple other breaches of online accounts due to that reuse‚” Hunt said.
Hunt is the founder of the website haveibeenpwned.com‚ which allows users to check if their personal information has been compromised online. People can verify if their data was included in the latest leak by visiting the site.
What steps were taken?
The Hawks and SA’s Information Regulator were informed about the leak. One of SA’s top real-estate firms admitted to being the unwitting source of the data‚ hacked in what was then the largest-known personal data breach in the country.
The Hawks met with the State Security Agency (SSA) to confirm whether there was been a data leak compromising personal information of users of the traffic fine website, viewfines.co.za.
Said the Hawks’ Hangwani Mulaudzi: “We are working with the SSA to ascertain exactly what transpired.” He added that they were investigating the data leak and the exact number of people whose information might have been compromised.
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