'123456' password linked to Denmark data breach affecting 8.8M people
Authorities said the attacker used a Danish IT company’s legal access and 14 million automated searches to pull names, addresses and ID numbers.
- Denmark's Central Register of Persons suffered a significant data breach exposing information belonging to 8.8 million people, with an attacker claiming they gained access using the password "123456."
- The breach involved Funen-based Pays ApS, a company with authorized access to validate business customers' records; at least three company accounts, including an administrator account, used the same weak password.
- Staff discovered the attack on October 2 after Mikkel Leihardt, director of the government's higher education and science ministry, noted an invoice for unusually high activity—12 days after the attacker completed 14 million automated searches.
- Datatilsynet was notified on October 4, and the government disclosed the attack the following day; Pays' website was taken offline, with managing director Sophie Laursen confirming on October 9 that the company's access had been exploited.
- The compromised register contains approximately 11 million records, including deceased individuals, while a person claiming responsibility told Politiken they had no intention of leaking the data despite the government not addressing alleged password failings.
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The cartoon and the dangerous have just crossed into the cybersecurity world. As we have revealed, an attacker has accessed Denmark's central civil registry and extracted data from almost 9 million people. The worst is what was known now. It did not involve tools or exploitation of vulnerabilities. It was enough the most predictable password [...]
At least three company records related to a major violation of the Danish physical record by CPR used the password "123456", including the administrator's account, Copenhagen Post. The incident touched on information about nearly 8.8 million social security numbers, handed over to Politiken. The professor at the University of Aarhus, Jens Mirup Pedersen, called this approach fatal. "There is no real protection, it's an open door.
A hard-to-believe security flaw may have led to a serious data breach in Denmark.
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One of the world's worst passwords, 123456, helped a hacker steal 8.8 million people's data in Denmark
Number sequences starting with 1 dominate lists of the most common passwords – there were ten of them in last year's top 20. The most popular of them all topped the list: "123456."Read Entire Article
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