Another day, another data breach; this time, Victor Gevers, a Dutch security researcher from GDI Foundation has discovered a publically exposed database containing a massive trove of highly sensitive data of millions of Chinese women.
According to Gevers, the database which is open for anyone to access contains personal details of 1.8 million women from China including their names, addresses, age, sex, phone numbers, location, ID numbers, and marital status. What’s shocking or rather upsetting is that the status of the database is named as “BreedReady.”
Although it is unclear what the term “BreedReady” suggests, in a Twitter thread, Gevers posted several screenshots showing in and outs of the database. One of the screenshot showed the average age of women in the database was 32 while the youngest most age of the girl was only 15 which raises all kinds of speculations and questions.
It is also unclear who was behind the database and what was its exact purpose however according to Gevers, it could be that whoever build the database was lost in translation and used the term BredReady due to poor English.
“It could be a poor translation of Chinese terms to describe whether a woman has children or is of child-bearing age,” The Guardian reported.
There are several questions surrounding the database which will remain unanswered since the database was taken down by its owner on Monday night.
Yes. I have seen databases where the mix-up IdentityCardNumber with CertficateNumber. But the rest of the database fields do not make any sense in a normal way. The HasVideo:1 means they are being watched or monitored which makes a bit weirder. This one also has Facebook acc? 🤷♂️
— Victor Gevers (@0xDUDE) March 10, 2019
It is worth mentioning that Gevers is the same security researcher who last month identified Chinese facial recognition database tracking millions of Muslims. The database was being used by the Chinese government for probably months to remotely monitor Uyghur populace in the Xinjiang region.
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