Social media has spread information that a hacker has put up for sale in the darknet the personal data of 15 million Kazakhstanis. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
Ministry's statement
The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development said it is aware of this information. The ministry stated that a technical check of the published information is currently being conducted jointly with specialized services.
«"Currently, together with specialized services, a technical check of the published information is being carried out. This includes analyzing the provided data samples and identifying their possible source," the ministry said.»
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Hacker's claim
Social media is circulating information that a user known by the pseudonym shymzz13 has put up for sale a file with personal data. The database reportedly contains passport details, phone numbers, email addresses, place of work, scanned copies of documents, and passwords. The hacker claimed to have obtained this data by hacking the state eGov service.
Ministry's verification
According to the ministry, there is currently no confirmed information about a breach of the e-government information systems or that the mentioned database was obtained directly from the eGov system.
«"Part of the information specified in the publication does not correspond to the structure and format of e-government data. In particular, the eGov system does not store scanned copies of passports, and the format of digital documents is different," the ministry said.»
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The darknet user's statement about the origin of the database cannot serve as proof of a breach of the eGov system. The technical check is ongoing. Additional information will be provided based on its results.