Pair held over leak of 130,000 passengers details from rail ticket website in China
Information put on sale on hackers forums includes travellers’ mobile phone numbers
Two people have been arrested for allegedly selling the personal details of about 130,000 passengers who use the official rail ticket website in China.
The suspects were detained on Thursday night, according to a statement released by the China Railway Corporation.
The pair were alleged to be selling information online, including the customers’ log in names and passwords on the 12306.cn site, plus their mobile telephone numbers.
The statement from the rail company said the pair collected user names and passwords from other websites, including gaming platforms, and then systematically tried them to log into the rail ticket site.
The leak of confidential information comes as the public starts buying tickets for the Lunar New Year holiday in China in February, when hundreds of millions travel to their home towns by train.
The Beijing News had reported earlier that the customers’ personal information gleaned from the rail website was for sale on numerous online hacking communities.