25 April 2016

MongoDB security issue and exposure of personal data of 93,4 million Mexican voters


MongoDB security issue and exposure of personal data of 93,4 million Mexican voters

April 14 security researcher Chris Vickery from MacKeeper published his discovery on a corporate blog. It appears that personal information of 93,4 million Mexican voters was publicly available on one of the servers in Amazon cloud. This is a huge breach, since it concerns every Mexican citizen. This information was available to everybody at least since September 2015.

The 132 GB database contained voter registration data on 93,424,710 Mexican citizens and it was possible to connect to it without providing credentials. The database contained names, dates of birth, mother’s and father’s last names, occupation, and unique voting credential codes (number/identifier).

Unfortunately, absence of access credentials is a default configuration of MongoDB installation. We assume, the leak happened when database administrators decided to move the data into cloud to be able to process it faster, but forgot/were not able to turn on authentication.

So, MongoDB developers are also to blame for this leak.

Back to the list

Latest Posts

Ukrainian military personnel targeted via messaging apps and dating sites

Ukrainian military personnel targeted via messaging apps and dating sites

The threat actor employs a range of software in their malicious activities, including both commercial programs and  open-source tools.
18 April 2024
Russian military hackers targeted US water utilities and hydroelectric facilities in Europe

Russian military hackers targeted US water utilities and hydroelectric facilities in Europe

This marks the first time Russian nation-state hackers have posed a direct threat to critical infrastructure in Western countries.
18 April 2024
International police operation takes down massive PhaaS platform LabHost

International police operation takes down massive PhaaS platform LabHost

The investigation found over 40 000 phishing domains linked to LabHost, which had some 10 000 users worldwide.
18 April 2024