An anonymous internet user, identified as 'ChinaDan', posted on the hacker forum Breach Forums last week offering to sell more than 23 terabytes of stolen data from the Shanghai police database, including names, addresses, birthplaces, national IDs, phone numbers and criminal case information regarding one billion Chinese residents.
In an anonymous post, the hacker asked for 10 bitcoin, worth around $200,000 (£168,000) for the complete file.
"In 2022, the Shanghai National Police (SHGA) database was leaked. This database contains many TB of data and information on Billions of Chinese citizen," the post said.
The Shanghai government and police department did not respond to requests for comment on Monday, and news outlets have been unable to check the veracity of the post, or contact the self-proclaimed hacker, ChinaDan. However, The Associated Press news agency did obtain an unverified sample set of data that listed the personal information of minors.
The post raised...