- Cybernews researchers discover a data leak that belongs to Valley News Live
- An unprotected data set with 1.8 million records has been discovered
- The data mainly affect employment applicants to the company.
A set of online without protection has been discovered containing 1.8 million files, including more than one million CV.
The data set was discovered by Cybernews researchers, who suspect that the data comes from the Valley News Live Labor Portal, which attracts up to 250,000 monthly visitors.
The researchers confirmed that Personal Identification Information (PII) contained complete names, telephone numbers, email addresses, housing addresses, social media links, as well as a history of employment and education.
Applicants at risk
Valley News Live is a television station based in Fargo, North Dakota, and is owned by Gray Media, a large conglomerate that has or operates 180 stations in the United States in 113 markets, and is the third largest station of the United States.
Anyone who has recently touched their CV can probably understand how much danger could put a victim, since the amount of PII required to build them could easily put someone in danger of social engineering attacks or identity theft.
The researchers warned that many of the CV discovered covered numerous years, covering a period between 2017 and 2024, which describes how many are at risk.
The data set was discovered online on August 31, 2024, and the initial dissemination notice was sent to the company on September 17, 2024.
“The exposed data include highly sensitive personal identifiers, creating numerous attack vectors for cybercriminals, where personal information can be used to create synthetic identities or fraudulent accounts,” the researchers said.
Any person who has requested a job in the company or who believes that it could be at risk of this or any escape must be attentive when monitoring their cards and must be very careful when receiving unexpected communications.
For companies, our complete advice on what to do after a data violation can be found here.
