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The Danish government has confirmed that its central database of citizens\u2019 data was breached and most of its contents were stolen. The data breach affects some 8 million citizens and residents of Denmark, including people living abroad and the deceased.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Danish minister Christina Egelund said the breach of the country\u2019s Central Person Register (CPR) was a \u201cserious incident,\u201d which allowed hackers to steal names, addresses, Danish social security numbers, and other information.<\/p>\n
The CPR is a government database of Danish citizens\u2019 information, including their government-issued identity number for paying taxes and accessing other services. Denmark\u2019s current population is about 6 million people, but the database includes records for about 11 million people, with some of the data going back decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Danish government would not say<\/a> who is behind the breach, which happened in September but was discovered on October 2. However, it said the unauthorized access was obtained by \u201cabusing a Danish company\u2019s lawful access to search for information in the CPR system.\u201d (Some companies in Denmark have access to the CPR for verifying people\u2019s information with the government.)<\/p>\n The data breach is thought to be the biggest in the country\u2019s history. It follows similar cyberattacks targeting government national identity databases, including a 2016 breach affecting millions of Turkish citizens<\/a> and several<\/a> exposures<\/a> of national ID cards and data spilled from India\u2019s national Aadhaar database of citizens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n