Slashdot Mirror
Huge Database Leak Reveals 1.37 Billion Email Addresses and Exposes Illegal Spam Operation (betanews.com)
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.
I want to see if I'm on it. Yeah. That's why. Just Kidding. :-)
It took me over 2 years to get off one hotel chains spam list even though I ticked "DO NOT email me offers"
Now I have a spam email address I use for all hotels , real estate agents, etc etc etc that fits into the format of x.x.xspamtrap@gmail.com
so they KNOW its a spam trap
Some have complained that its not a real address, it is, but anything that ends up there is automatically deleted, I never see any of it, and they get told this
I am more than happy to show them on my phone that its real, but worthless.