Approximately 6.5TB of Microsoft Bing user data may have been left exposed online for two days after an Elasticsearch sever was left unsecured and open to the internet.
Data relating to search queries, device details, and GPS coordinates were found in a database by online security site WizCase, which was then able to trace the server back to Bing's mobile app.
The server was said to be growing by as much as 200GB per day while exposed, according to Ata Hakcil, a white hat hacker who also served as lead investigator for the website.
A link between the server and Bing was eventually found after researchers ran a search query for "WizCase" on the Bing mobile app and then paired the query data with that held on the server.
Exposed data included search terms in clear text, search times, locations, notification tokens, a partial list of URLs users visited from their search results, device models they used, their operating systems and three separate ID numbers (ADID, deviceID and devicehash) assigned to each user.
The server is believed to have been password protected until around the 10th September, with the server eventually being discovered by the WizCase team two days later. By the 16th September, Microsoft had been alerted and had encrypted the server once more.
The team believes that anyone who had used Bing's mobile app for internet searches between the 10th and 16th September may have had their data leaked online.
Researchers also believe that during this period the database was subject to what's known as a "meow" attack – an automated attack that targets unsecured Elasticsearch servers and destroys huge volumes of data without explanation or reason.
-
Should AI PCs be part of your next hardware refresh?AI PCs are fast becoming a business staple and a surefire way to future-proof your business
-
Westcon-Comstor and Vectra AI launch brace of new channel initiativesNews Westcon-Comstor and Vectra AI have announced the launch of two new channel growth initiatives focused on the managed security service provider (MSSP) space and AWS Marketplace.
-
P2PInfect self-replicating Rust worm discovered attacking Redis instancesNews Researchers believe that the worm could be laying the groundwork for a larger campaign to be launched at some point in the future
-
Redefining modern enterprise storage for mission-critical workloadsWhitepaper Evolving technology to meet the mission-critical needs of the most demanding IT environments
-
MWC 2023: Huawei launches 'world's best' ransomware detection systemNews Huawei claims its Cyber Engine database security system has a 99.9% detection rate, but experts have been quick to weaken the sentiment
-
Dutch hacker steals data from virtually entire population of AustriaNews The data was stolen from a misconfigured cloud database found by the attacker through a search engine
-
IRS mistakenly publishes 112,000 taxpayer records for the second timeNews A contractor is thought to be responsible for the error, with the agency reportedly reviewing its relationship with Accenture
-
Database and big data securityWhitepaper KuppingerCole 2021 Leadership Compass Report
-
Modernise your legacy databases in the cloudWhitepaper An introduction to cloud databases
-
Microsoft Azure flaw exposed 'thousands' of customer databasesNews Security research Wiz describes Cosmos flaw as "the worst cloud vulnerability you can imagine"
