Hacker Leaks Data of 42,064 Karachiities Through a Retail Website

While using the internet at the fastest uninterrupted speeds, we often forget about the danger that surrounds us on the internet. Being on the internet means that we are constantly giving out personal data and information to both mega-corporations for running selective advertisements and to hackers that extract and sell this information on the deep web.

A similar incident happened with people living in Karachi when a hacker got access to the personal data of 42,064 Karachiites. Stolen from a retail website, this data was more like an excel sheet with information such as names, phone numbers, residential addresses, invoice details, and more.

Looking at the class size and details of the data, it can easily be figured out that the retail shopping website was that of a large business. This makes it even more dangerous since large brands usually have user trust when it comes to hacking.

The information was first disclosed by an Intelligence Analyst named ‘Zaki Khalid’. Zaki announced that the hacker after retrieving user information is now selling it on a deep web forum. Alongside his announcement, Zaki also revealed a screenshot of the data that was up for sale on the forum.

Censored for privacy, the data contains sensitive information that includes things like addresses, customer notes and phone numbers. Most customers targeted in the data breach are found to be living in ‘posh’ areas of the city, this mostly includes areas like DHA and Clifton.

But can this information leak cause harm to the affectees? Well, getting your phone number and address out on a deep web forum is actually a bad thing, but experts suggest that this data is mostly useless and can be used by a cheap marketing company at best. So yes, there is nothing to worry about.

However, what we should be concerned about is the increasing number of data breaches in Pakistan. Just recently a critical amount of SECP (Security Exchange Commission Pakistan) data was leaked by hackers. This data included things such as addresses, phone numbers and ID card numbers of various CEOs, which obviously is sensitive information.

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