Millions of phone numbers and e-mail addresses of Instagram influencers have leaked into the Internet due to the unsecured database.
Techcrunch revealed that in Amazon Web Services was a database containing over 49 million records, which was not protected by any password. The uploaded records included, among others, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers that were provided during the registration of accounts by celebrities and influencers. Besides, a lot of other information was disclosed, such as profile photos, locations, number of observed accounts and biographies. According to the news, the data could have been seen by anyone.
The database has been linked to one of the Mumbai marketing agencies – Chtrbox. Moreover, the records also contained the estimated value of the celebrity for advertisers, resulting from the number of fans and their involvement in the published content.
It is still unclear how Chtrbox came into possession of such a database. Probably the data may have been obtained through vulnerabilities in Instagram APIs. The breached records were deleted after notifying the company. However, there is no information whether it has been copied by other people or entities in the meantime.
Kamil Pastuszka – 23 maja 2019 – EN
