Researchers Found World-Readable Database Used To Secure Buildings Around the Globe

'Researchers said they have found a publicly accessible database
containing almost 28 million records -- including plain-text
passwords, face photos, and personal information -- that was used to
secure buildings around the world. Ars Technica reports:

Researchers from vpnMentor reported on Wednesday that the database was
used by the Web-based Biostar 2 security system sold by South
Korea-based Suprema. Biostar uses facial recognition and fingerprint
scans to identify people authorized to enter warehouses, municipal
buildings, businesses, and banks. vpnMentor said the system has more
than 1.5 million installations in a wide range of countries including
the U.S., the UK, Indonesia, India, and Sri Lanka. According to
vpnMentor, the 23-gigabyte database contained more than 27.8 million
records used by Biostar to secure customer facilities. The data
included usernames, passwords and user IDs in plaintext, building
access logs, employee records including start dates, personal details,
mobile device data, and face images.

The researchers said the data also included more than 1 million
records containing actual fingerprint scans, but the report provided
no data to support the claim.

"The vpnMentor researchers said they discovered the exposed database
on August 5 and privately reported the finding two days later,"
reports Ars Technica. "The data wasn't secured until Tuesday, six days
later."'

-- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/08/14/2256231

Cheers, Peter
-- 
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
_______________________________________________
wlug mailing list | [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug