Personal information of 200,000 users of 1111 job bank leaked on online forum

• Hackers gained access to an old server containing job applicants’ personal data which dated back to eight years when the job site worked with a subcontractor.
• The leaked information includes job applicants’ ID card numbers, full names, dates of birth, email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses, and work history.

A hacker gained access to the private data of almost 200,000 users of a Taiwan-based job site ‘1111 Job Bank’ and leaked them on a US-based hacking forum.

The big picture

The hacker who goes under the handle ‘tomholland’ published the stolen data on the online thread of the hacking forum ‘RaidForums’. This hacking forum requires registration or payment to access hidden data, however, the hacker leaked the personal data directly in the online thread and declared in the forum that he had personal information about people from Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Taiwan.

• Upon discovery, 1111 Job Bank started working with local authorities in order to investigate the incident.
• The job site also reported the incident to the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB).
• It has hired security firms KPMG and ZUSO Generation Co for assistance with the investigation and other cybersecurity issues.

Worth noting

It is to be noted that the hacker gained access to an old server containing job applicants’ personal data which dated back to eight years when the job site worked with a subcontractor.

What information was leaked?

The leaked information includes job applicants’ ID card numbers, full names, dates of birth, email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses, and work history.

What was the response?

1111 Job Bank said that it has partnered with an insurance company to provide its users with NT$200 million (US$6.44 million) in third-party liability insurance.

Henry Ho, Vice President of 1111 Job Bank said that “We will take responsibility for compensation for those who were affected by the data leak,” Taiwan News reported.

He added that the company has liability insurance to handle the claims of the site's members.