LIFE HACK

Hacker Tried to Sell Personal Data of Pretty Much Everyone in Austria: Cops

The 25-year-old hacker was arrested in November, but not before unknown buyers were believed to have purchased the data, authorities said.

A 25-year-old Dutch hacker put the personal data of what is believed to be the entire population of Austria up for sale online, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing Austrian police. The unidentified individual offered up the data—including “the full name, gender, complete address and date of birth of presumably every citizen” in the country—on an online forum in May 2020, police said in a statement. The hacker was arrested in an Amsterdam apartment last November, but not before unknown actors were believed to have paid for the data, police said. “Since this data was freely available on the Internet, it must absolutely be assumed that these registration data are, in full or in part, irrevocably in the hands of criminals,” their statement read. Investigators confirmed the authenticity of the nearly nine million sets of data, and found that the hacker had also tried to hawk “similar” data sets from Italy, the Netherlands, and Colombia online. Austrian authorities said they did not have further details on those other sets, and it was unclear if they were sold.