Close to a million (934,000) personal records of South Africans have reportedly been publicly exposed online, following what appears to be a governmental leak.<\/p>\n
According to a report by iAfrikan<\/a> <\/strong>journalist Tefo Mohapi and ‘Have I been pwned<\/em>‘ analyst Troy Hunt, the data includes, among others, national identity numbers (ID numbers), e-mail addresses, full names, as well as plain text passwords to what appears to be a traffic fine-related online system.<\/p>\n Mohapi said\u00a0the data was backed up or posted publicly by one of the companies responsible online payments of\u00a0traffic fine in South Africa.<\/p>\n “This is yet another reminder of how far our data can spread without our knowledge. In this case, in particular, the presence of plain text passwords poses a serious risk because, inevitably, those passwords will unlock many of the other accounts victims of the breach use.<\/p>\n “This one incident has likely already led to multiple other breaches of online accounts due to that reuse,”said Hunt, quoted by iAfrikan.<\/p>\n