The exposed data reads like a surveillance state’s wish list. Beyond the financial and contact information, there were collections covering everything from gambling habits to vehicle registrations, employment details, and pension information.
According to the report, one collection, ominously named in Mandarin characters translating to “three-factor checks,” contained over 610 million records with what researchers believe were user IDs, phone numbers, and usernames — the holy trinity for identity verification.
The database also contained more than 353 million additional records spread across nine collections covering gambling activities, vehicle registrations, employment information, pension funds, and insurance data. Researchers identified one collection, “tw_db,” as potentially containing Taiwan-related information.