GunAuction site was hacked and data of 565k accounts were exposed

Hackers compromised the website GunAuction.com, a website that allows people to buy and sell guns, and stole users’ data.

Hackers have compromised GunAuction.com, a website that allows people to buy and sell guns, TechCrunch reported. The attackers have stolen sensitive personal data from more than 550,000 users. Compromised customers’ data include full names, home addresses, email addresses, plaintext passwords, and telephone numbers.

TechCrunch pointed out that stolen data can allow the unmasking of individuals that purchased a weapon. Crooks can use the data to know the physical address of the buyers and can reach the to steal the weapon.

At the end of 2022, a security researcher discovered the stolen data on an unsecured server belonging to a group of hackers.

TechCrunch was able to verify the authenticity of the data for a sample they analyzed, however it is unclear how recent the data is.

The popular data breach notification service HaveIBeenPwned reported that the hack took place in December and impacted 565k user accounts, it also added that 83% of the records were already in HIBP database.

“I can confirm that we were recently contacted by the FBI regarding the possibility of a data breach that has affected our company,” GunAuction.com CEO Manny DelaCruz confirmed the breach in an email. “The breach likely exposed personal customer information like names, addresses, and email addresses. However, we want to reassure our customers that we have no reason to believe that any financial information was accessed during the breach. We are advising our customers to remain vigilant and monitor their financial accounts and credit reports for any suspicious activity.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, GunAuction)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.