Andrew Chapman, a British IT manager, made a purchase that could have been particularly lucrative on Ebay. It was originally a simple computer at $ 35. But while exploring the hard drive, he discovered the bank details, maiden names and signatures of a million people.
A simple oversight …
These data came from large banking companies such as American Express, NatWest or the Royal Bank of Scotland. They came from a company hosting this type of information, “Mail Source. The firm has no idea what this computer for sale on Ebay was doing. But it seems like a simple oversight on the part of the employees, who would have put it on sale without erasing the hard drive. Fortunately, Andrew Chapman did not take advantage of this financial windfall to buy a villa with swimming pool or resell the data to the mafia (see article: BestWestern hacked by the Russian mafia. He honestly reported it.
An event not so isolated
The event had worried the customers of the banks concerned, but Mail Source assured that it was an isolated problem, giving the impression of being in good control of the situation. Ironically, the next day, the newspaper “The mail” revealed that another happy Ebay user had found some 35,000 bank details in a computer bought £ 6.99. And experts said that these two sales were not than the tip of the iceberg. Finally, buying second-hand computers can be a good deal…