Almost 160,000 resumes uploaded on Chinese recruitment site allegedly stolen and traded online

• User data belonging to Zhilian Zhaopin has been stolen and traded on Taobao, Alibaba's e-commerce website.
• Two Zhilian staff were arrested for allegedly helping a person named Zheng to obtain corporate member accounts of Zhilian and gain access to user data.

A Chinese recruitment firm named Zhilian Zhaopin reported that almost 160,000 resumes uploaded on its site have been stolen and traded online for 5 yuan (70 US cents) per piece.

What happened?

Zhilian became aware that its user data has been traded on Taobao, Alibaba's e-commerce website. Upon which, the recruitment site reported the incident to police in June 2018.

Two months later, police arrested two Zhilian staff Lu Mou and Wang Mou, for violating the company rules and helping a person named Zheng to obtain corporate member accounts of Zhilian and gain access to user data.

On July 05, 2019, the case was heard for the second time in Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court. Following the case being heard at court, Zhilian said the following:

“User effectiveness is the lifeline of Zhilian recruitment development. Protecting user information security is the basic responsibility of Zhaopin recruitment. Zhilian Recruitment will not tolerate illegal activities of information fraud and personal information violations. For such incidents, Zhaopin recruitment will be severely investigated and resolutely cracked down,” Zhilian said in a statement, Sina reported.

What actions were taken?

• Upon discovery, Zhilian hired compliance departments to strengthen regulations and conduct extensive self-examination and self-correction.
• The Chinese recruitment firm updated its information security policy, implemented a third-party fraud information database and an online customer security risk assessment system.
• The recruitment site audited all corporate accounts and warned any suspicious activity through big data.
• In June 2019, it officially launched the National Market Supervision and Administration Administration's electronic business license lighting system.