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Huge Database Leak Reveals 1.37 Billion Email Addresses and Exposes Illegal Spam Operation (betanews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the boom dept.

One of the largest spam operations in the world has exposed its entire operation to the public, leaking its database of 1.37bn email addresses thanks to a faulty backup. From a report: A faulty backup has inadvertently exposed the entire working database of notorious spam operator River City Media (RCM). In all, the database contains more than 1.37 billion email addresses, and for some records there are additional details such as names, real-world addresses, and IP addresses. It's a situation that's described as "a tangible threat to online privacy and security." Details about the leak come courtesy of Chris Vickery from macOS security firm MacKeeper who -- with a team of helpers -- has been investigating since January. River City Media's database ended up online thanks to incorrectly-configured Rsync backups. In the words of Vickery: "Chances are you, or at least someone you know, is affected." The leaked, and unprotected, database is what's behind the sending of over a billion spam emails every day -- helped, as Vickery points out, by "a lot of automation, years of research, and fair bit of illegal hacking techniques." But it's more than a database that has leaked -- it's River City Media's entire operation.

5 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Redundant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How many spam operations are legal?

    1. Re:Redundant by Obfuscant · · Score: 5, Insightful

      that doesn't mean it isn't a legitimate justification for a lot of commercial email.

      It is not a legitimate excuse for the commercial email I receive based on such lies. I ALWAYS uncheck this "pre-selected opt-in" (an oxymoron), and the spammer ALWAYS tells me that I opted-in.

      If I order a pizza on PizzaHut.com, and next week Pizza Hut sends me an email with their weekly special offers, that isn't spam.

      Yes, it is. Unsolicited commercial junk email. UCE. BY DEFINITION.

      Spam is all the completely unsolicited boner pills, home mortgage, weight loss, and other garbage coming from randos who bought or harvested my email address somewhere,

      Spam is not defined by topic. It is defined by UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL. Yes, there are many sources of spam. The fact that you bought a pizza at Pizza Hut does not excuse their unsolicited commercial email, which is spam.

    2. Re:Redundant by nukenerd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Spam is UNWANTED e-mail.

      No, spam is UNSOLICITED commercial email. When you did whatever action you did on their site to receive it, you solicited them to send it

      Bullshit. My "action" is to buy something online (it is getting hard to find some types of stuff any other way). Buying something is not "soliciting" for email adverts for ever after.

      Anyway, I use disposable email addresses for purchasing. After it's delivered, I turn off the address and their spam is going into a black hole somewhere, not even as far as my spam directory. But I can look at the stats and see that some companies I have bought from (including a gardening supplier I bought a $10 item from 5 years ago) have sent me thousands of emails - a situation that is ridiculous

  2. Re:Can someone post a download link? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You might be, I'm not. I want to see what kind of personal information was leaked about me or my family. I'm guessing it'll take me a day to find a torrent or magnet link for it.

  3. Re:Source article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wait, what? MacKeeper? The malware that advertises all over porn sites? If they "investigated" some spammer, rest assured that it's all part of a dastardly plot on MacKeeper's part.