Huge data leak: 106 million Thai holidaymakers affected

That’s how quickly a vacation can come to an end. More than 100 million travelers to Thailand are now likely to be annoyed by a leak of extremely sensitive data. And it’s not just recent vacationers who are affected. The data comes from vacationers who have visited the beautiful spot in Southeast Asia within the last ten years.

Even passport numbers were leaked

In an extremely large data leak, the most sensitive data of more than 106 million Thailand vacationers was leaked. In addition to complete names, extremely important data has also been accessible with the passport numbers, which pose great dangers such as identity theft. The data leak became known on August 22 of this year. An employee of the security company Comparitech discovered the same. According to his own information, he informed the responsible authorities in Thailand as quickly as possible. After official confirmation of the leak, an extensive backup of the freely accessible database was carried out. Now, however, there is a big question mark in the room: how long had the sensitive data already been accessible?

Access had not yet taken place

According to the Thai authorities, not a single access to the database had taken place during the entire period. However, there is no real confirmation of this claim yet. The affected database includes 106 million records, which contain extensive personal information. In particular, important travel and personal data are said to be part of each record. In addition to the full name and arrival in Thailand, even the passport number is accessible.

Not an isolated case

But what actually happens when criminals now try their hand at lucrative data theft? Bob Diachenko, an employee at Comparitech, explains that a honeypot is running at the corresponding IP address. In case of an access, the honeypot displays the following message: “This is a honeypot, all accesses have been logged”. In the meantime, the increasing frequency of comparable data leaks is making security experts sit up and take notice. Just last week, for example, a leak from a car rental company on the popular vacation island of Gran Canaria came to the public’s attention. However, some of those affected probably didn’t get off so lightly. After all, Internet criminals were already offering complete data sets for download for a few euros. It’s about time that an offensive for data security was launched.