Biggest Data Breach Ever

15 April 2021 – The biggest data breach ever was announced in the Netherlands. Millions of passwords were stolen from Dutch and Belgium users of the popular webshop ‘Allekabels’. With most certainty, the passwords were used by cybercriminals.

Personal data of 3.6 million people were offered for sale for an amount of 15,000€ on a hacker forum at the end of January. The victims are customers of the Allekabels webshop, a Dutch company that sells cables for computers and smartphones. The Belgian department of the webshop has also been affected. It is not known how many Belgian victims are involved.

What data are we talking about?

The sold data involves around 2.6 million unique email addresses that are linked to names, personal addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and encrypted passwords. That is why this makes this leak the largest data breach of passwords ever in the Netherlands.

Besides the 2.6 million unique email addresses, there is another million personal data of people who have ordered something from Allekabels via a webshop such as Bol.com or Amazon. In this case, no e-mail addresses or passwords were leaked. Lastly, around 109,000 IBAN numbers of customers have also been stolen and traded.

The “ad” on the hacker forum to sell the data was removed months ago. This indicates that all data has already been sold. Cybercriminals are already using the data extensively to hack or defraud people.

What to do now?

If you have created an account with Allekabels, you need to change your password as soon as possible. If you also use the same password for more accounts, it is better to change your password there immediately. Remain extra vigilant for strange emails or phone calls from people who may want to scam you.

(Source: HLN, 15-04-2021)