Image via Mostafa Meraji
The personal details for more than 4.9 million Georgians, including deceased citizens, has been published on a hacking forum over the weekend, on Saturday.
Personal information such as full names, home addresses, dates of birth, ID numbers, and mobile phone numbers were shared online in a 1.04 GB MDB (Microsoft Access database) file.
The leaked data was spotted by the Under the Breach, a data breach monitoring and prevention service, and shared with ZDNet over the weekend.
The database contained 4,934,863 records including details for millions of deceased citizens — as can be seen from the screenshot below. Georgia’s current population is estimated at 3.7 million, according to a 2019 census.
Image: ZDNet
It is unclear if the forum user who shared the data is the one who obtained it.
The data’s source also remains a mystery. On Sunday, ZDNet initially reported this leak over as coming from Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC), but in a statement on Monday, the commission denied that the data originated from its servers, as it contained information that they don’t usually collect.
In a statement to ZDNet, one of the individuals sharing the data on hacking forums declined to say from where they obtained the data, but later clarified that it was not from CEC when pressed with the commission’s statement on Monday. The individual cited a misunderstanding and lack of knowledge of the English language, clarifying that CEC’s website could be used to verify the data, and not that the data was obtained from the organization.
ZDNet has provided links to the leaked data to Georgian authorities who are now investigating the breach.
Updated on March 30, 10:25am ET with statement from CEC and one of the leakers. Title updated accordingly.
