32M records nicked from The Epoch Times up for grabs online

A threat actor is offering a database allegedly belonging to a far-right media outlet The Epoch Times. Its 32 million records have been purportedly exposed.

According to cybersecurity experts at SafetyDetectives, the data was found in a forum post available on the clear surface web. The forum operates message boards dedicated to database downloads and leaks.

The data consisted of 32 million records, allegedly containing The Epoch Times subscriber usernames, full names, phone numbers, credit card numbers, card expiration dates, billing addresses, invoices, emails, devices, and locations.

The forum post showed only the headers of the alleged Epoch Times’ data, SafetyDetectives says, but it came with a link to a sample of the data. It consisted of three .txt files, which combined contained over one thousand lines.

It’s unclear whether the author of the post wants anything in exchange for the dataset, but they shared an email address in case interested parties wanted to get in touch.

To be fair, no credit card details were found in any of the sample files. “However, even without the credit card numbers, the exposed data is still considered sensitive, as malicious actors could use it to plan and execute various types of attacks on the affected people,” said the experts.

Cybercriminals might, of course, use the leaked information to arrange extremely targeted phishing and social engineering attacks.

Founded in 2000, The Epoch Times calls itself an international media outlet “born out of need to provide uncensored news to people immersed in Chinese propaganda.” Its website is blocked in mainland China.

Lately, however, The Epoch Times – affiliated with the ultraconservative Falun Gong new religious movement – has represented far-right views.

It hosts articles by European far-right radicals and has supported US President Donald Trump. The newspaper has also published climate change denial content and spread anti-vax misinformation.