FPI / July 14, 2022
A computer hacker who had obtained a database from a police network in Shanghai which contained records on 1 billion Chinese citizens attempted to sell the database for 10 bitcoin, or about $200,000.
The hacker, identified only by the handle “ChinaDan,” appeared on a hacker forum called BreachForums seeking to sell the police files.“In 2022, the Shanghai National Police (SHGA) database was leaked. This database contains many [terabytes] of data and information on billions of Chinese citizens,” the hacker stated on the forum.
The breach is the second major leak of police files in China in recent days. A cache of police records from Xinjiang in western China was made public recently by researcher Adrian Zenz.
The information, about 23 terabytes of data, was seen as having immense value to U.S. and Western intelligence agencies as it contained insight into how Chinese police and security services operate.
The records included cases from 2001 to 2019 ranging from civil to criminal cases, including fraud and rape. The records also included billions of logs of phone calls to police from people reporting civil disputes and crimes.
The information was said to have come from the Shanghai government National Police Database.
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