A cybercriminal has released internal data online that they say has come from leaks at several high-profile sources, including SpaceX, CNN, and the White House.
However, there are some questions around the reliability and usefulness of the released data, so we took a closer look.
When it comes to the the SpaceX data set, the poster is apparently not a big fan of Elon Musk.
Their post on data leak site BreachForums says:
“Today I present data from Spacex, because F*** you elon musk, thats why LOL
The leak contains, Emails, Hashes, Numbers, Hosts, IP’s”
But looking at the data we spotted some strange looking entries.
For example, by searching for Elon’s email address we found all these:
SpaceX has not acknowledged this data breach, and it doesn’t seem likely that it will.
Moving on to the White House data set, we also found something that looked odd while looking at the email addresses. A lot of them seem to be composed of German words followed by the @whitehouse.gov domain name.
Again, the breach claim has not been acknowledged, nor do we expect it to be.
The same poster claims to have breached another company, Up North Pride, by impersonating a police officer:
“I sent them a fake data request from a law enforcement email, and they handed over what they had and this is what they handed over”
In this case, looking at the data, the email addresses of the partnering organizations at least look real.
The motive of the cybercriminal for posting the way they did is unclear. Many of these posters are just looking for attention, potentially hoping to sell some of the data by getting their name out there. Or they are trying to annoy some of the people they don’t like.
For now, we wait and see, but it’s probably not worth giving it the time of day.
If you want to find out if your personal data was exposed through a data breach, you can use our free Digital Footprint scan. Fill in the email address you’re curious about (it’s best to submit the one you use most frequently to sign up for sites and services) and we’ll send you a free report.
We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity
Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using identity protection.