PeopleConnect has confirmed the data breach Incident of 20 M Accounts

Two famous information-providing websites were being hacked, and a data breach resulted in chaos. Which were the two websites, and how did the incident happen? Let’s talk over it.

The two subscription-based services allow users to get the whereabouts of people has been compromised due to an unknown hacker’s intentional hacking practice. Moreover, those two companies were known as

1. Instant Checkmate
2. TruthFinder

These services providers offer the services of background checking and verification facilities with the data they have stored with them from various sources. They have suffered a data breach that their parent company, “PeopleConnect confirms.”

“PeopleConnect” owns the two subscription-based background check services providing companies. The adversaries leaked millions of users’ data in one go.

What is TruthFinder?

It’s a company that offers users a wide range of datasets about individuals, businesses, and their contact numbers. Moreover, it has access to public records & other data sources to offer better search results about anything at any time.

There, it can be used for various reasons that involve

1. Background Checks
2. Address Searches
3. Reverse Contact Details Lookups
4. Court Record Searches
5. And many more.

What is Instant Checkmate?

It’s an online tech helping users to access public data. The website has access to various kinds of data, such as

1. Criminal Records,
2. Address Histories,
3. Marriage
4. Divorces,
5. Bankruptcies,
6. And More.

Data Breach Details

21, Jan, 2023

Anonymous hackers breached the backup database of 2019 related to “TruthFinder” and “Instant Checkmate” on Dark Forums. It’s a kind of forum that offers a platform to people where many hackers post breached data.

The breached records were saved earlier and created on 16, Apr, 2019. Moreover, it was shared as two 2.9 GB CSV files. After extracting the files, the whole dataset was opened up around the size of 7 GB, which involved data as

1. Full Names
2. Phone Numbers
3. Email Addresses
4. Passwords Hashes
5. Password Reset Tokens and more.

You can see the breached data and files in the following screenshots related to the two subscription-based data service providers.

1

2

People Connect (Parent Company)

The firm has confirmed the event and assured us that the investigation has begun. The parent company has sent a notice to the impact websites confirming the data breach. You can also see the statements they have given.

“We learned recently that a list, including name, email, telephone number in some instances, as well as securely encrypted passwords and expired and inactive password reset tokens, of TruthFinder subscribers, was being discussed and made available in an online forum.”

“We have confirmed that the list was created several years ago and appeared to include all customer accounts created between 2011 and 2019. The published list originated inside our company.”

Threat to the Connected Individuals!

Here, the investigation is on board, and the parent company “PeopleConnect” has collaborated with a cybersecurity organization to search for more clues related to the event. However, the firm hasn’t cleared if that was an accidental leak or if the adversary breached a specific list. There is no evidence of a network breach.

For more amazing facts & information like this, you can follow us on News4Hackers. Leave a comment if you have any queries.

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