Security

Virustotal data leak exposed data of some registered customers, including intelligence members

The online malware scanning service VirusTotal leaked data associated with some registered customers, German newspapers reported.

German newspapers Der Spiegel and Der Standard reported that the online malware scanning service VirusTotal leaked data associated with some registered customers.

At the end of June, a small file of 313 kilobytes containing a list of 5,600 names was exposed online. The file included data associated with employees of the US secret service NSA, the US Cyber ​​Command, and German intelligence services registered with the Google-owned security platform.

“Twenty accounts alone lead to the US “Cyber ​​Command”, part of the American military and the control center for offensive and defensive hacking operations. Also represented: the US Department of Justice, the American federal police FBI and the secret service NSA. Official bodies from the Netherlands, Taiwan and Great Britain are also on Virustotal.” reported Der Standard.

Der Spiegel points out that the leaked data reveals who deals with IT security and malware in the impacted companies and government organizations. Threat actors could use this information to target these professionals with spear-phishing attacks.

The exposed records include customers’ names and email addresses. The information was exposed after an employee inadvertently uploaded the data to VirusTotal.

“”A spokeswoman for Google Cloud said when asked that a VirusTotal employee had “unintentionally made a small part” of customer data available on VirusTotal.” reported Der Spiegel.

When Google became aware of the data leak immediately removed the data.

“We removed the list from the platform within an hour of uploading it.” We are working on improving internal processes and technical controls to prevent this in the future.”” continues the newspaper.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, VirusTotal)

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”.

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