Massive Chinese data breach allegedly spills 8.7 billion records - here's what we know

• Exposed Elasticsearch cluster leaked 8.7 billion records of Chinese individuals and businesses
• Data included PII, plaintext passwords, and corporate registration details
• Cluster likely run by data brokers; hosted on bulletproof provider, now locked down after discovery

One of the largest data leaks ever to happen in China has been detected after security researchers from Cybernews reported coming across an exposed Elasticsearch cluster that contained more than 160 indices.

These indices held approximately 8.7 billion records, primarily of Chinese individuals.

The records contained all sorts of personally identifiable and sensitive data, including names, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, gender information, social media identifiers, and plaintext passwords. They also contained various corporate and business records such as company registration details, legal representatives, business contact information, and registration addresses and licensing metadata.