Data theft a clear and present danger

A day after a threat actor called "Fenice" claimed to have hacked 1.4 billion user accounts on Tencent, the Chinese internet giant told Southern Metropolis Daily on Wednesday that the claim was untrue and the information was rigged up and exaggerated with historical materials, misleading the public.

According to a news release issued by Schubert Jonckheer& Kolbe LLP, the company investigating the issue, a cybercriminal group called USDoD hacked the US' national public database based in Florida in April, after which the database containing information on 2.9 billion people was available on the dark web for $3.5 million.

The US case is a reminder to all platforms worldwide that store users' data to guard the data from theft in a more secure way. US media outlets have, expectedly, been crying themselves hoarse with headlines such as "Hackers may have stolen the social security numbers of every American".