Online sources have reported that about 30 million South Africans’ personal information has been leaked online.
According to the Australian security researcher and creator of ‘Have I been Pwned’, Troy Hunt. His website allows the public to check whether their personal information has been leaked online.
On Tuesday, he posted on Twitter saying he had“. A very large breach titled ‘masterdeeds’”. That is the title of the data that led him and others commentators to speculate that the leaked was from the deeds office.
Hunt said that the database included names of people, their gender, home ownership, ethnicity and contact information.
The data also contained the identity number of people and other details that are most likely to be estimation of their income and information of their employer.
If the information is legitimate, it may be the biggest breach of POPI (Police of Personal Information Act) to have ever taken place.
He also added that the information appeared to be from a government agency, which matters even more serious. South Africans replied to Hunt’s tweets, wondering if the information could be from other databases as some of the information is not something the deeds office would normally have.
No information was reported on whether the Deeds office have been hacked or not.
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