Names of every person in Austria put up for sale by hacker
Police say the hacker had also put 'similar data sets' from Italy, the Netherlands and Colombia up for sale.
A hacker offered to sell the full name, address and date of birth of virtually everyone in Austria – and nearly got away with the crime.
The Dutch criminal, who has not been named, carried out the feat from his apartment in Amsterdam.
Police say the 25-year-old offered the data for sale in an online forum in May 2020.
The information was advertised as ‘the full name, gender, complete address and date of birth of presumably every citizen’ in Austria.
Investigators have confirmed its authenticity, detectives added.
The trove of names comprised close to nine million sets of data, with Austria’s population is roughly 9.1 million.
Police say the hacker had also put ‘similar data sets’ from Italy, the Netherlands and Colombia up for sale.
The Austrian information is so-called registration data – basic information including a current address that residents are required to provide to the authorities.
In a statement, 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.’
The hacker was arrested in November but details of the case only emerged today.
A police spokesman added that the statement was only published now so as not to hinder those investigations.
Little other details have yet been unveiled, but the hacker was known to authorities prior to the incident – police said.
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