According to an ethical hacker from the International Institute of Cyber Security, a hacker, known as “Gnosticplayers”, offers to disclose personal details of 26 million users from six companies around the world in exchange for Bitcoin transfers. This is the fourth time that the hacker puts for sale stolen information in dark web forums in the most recent months.
According to the ethical hacker, depending on the compromised company the data cache could vary; however, most contain email addresses, user names, IP addresses, and some user-made configurations of each platform.
Apparently, the companies involved in this fourth incident are GameSalad (video game developer), Estante Virtual (a South American bookstore), Coubic and LifeBear (booking management Services), in addition to YouthManual, a vocational service for youngsters. This information is for sale in Dream, a very popular hacking forum in dark web.
- According to the ethical hacker report, about 1.5 million of GameSalad users have been affected
- Virtual Shelf contributed 5.5 million of affected users, leaking user names, email addresses and passwords
- On the other hand, 3.8 million registers of LifeBear users are also exposed
Several reports mention that Gnosticplayers is selling this information to demonstrate the insufficient security measures that these platforms operate on. An informant claims to have contacted the hacker and, when questioned him about his motives, said: “I feel that no one has learned anything; that annoys me. It’s frustrating to find this kind of security flaws in the year 2019 “, the hacker mentioned, according to the informant.
Through the hacking forum, Gnosticplayers said it still has undisclosed information; some believe that the hacker decided not to disclose all the information he has because some companies would have contacted him before to reach an agreement.
As mentioned above, this is not the first time Gnosticplayers sells dark web stolen information. The hacker has been trading with stolen information for at least three times the last two months. During the previous three rounds of sales, it was discovered that more than 700 million of user data has been sold.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
