The private information of 24 New Zealanders registered with a now-defunct cryptocurrency trading site has been found on the dark web.
Photo: 123 RF
Some 5,000 driver's licenses, passports and other data held by AlphaEx, which closed in August last year, have been posted online.
Cyber โโsupport charity IDCARE has been unable to contact AlphaEx or any of the affected New Zealanders.
The head of IDCARE Identity's security operations center, Moises Sanabria, said that more happened than people realized.
"What happens sometimes is that the people who own these businesses just leave the site and the site is still collecting information or registering people they think are still working.
"And because they've left the site, obviously the security isn't that great anymore, or the updates aren't in place anymore and people find backdoors or back ways to access that information, which is probably what happened here. ".
Privacy breaches were more likely for companies that were no longer in business, he said.
"When a company goes bankrupt or goes into insolvency and they give up, they don't really care about the aftermath.
"And even though the front door says we're not in business anymore, what's happening is the clutter that's left behind...because the people's data is there."
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner encourages New Zealanders who may have been affected to contact IDCARE as soon as possible and visit www.privacy.org.nz for more information and resources on privacy rights and responsibilities in New Zealand.
