The threat intelligence firm Digital Shadows detected more than 1.550.447.111 files publicly available through open Amazon Simple Storage Service containers, rsync, SMB, FTP servers, misconfigured websites and NAS drives.
Among the exposed documents, payrolls can be found, tax returns, Medical records, credit cards, and intellectual property. More than 64 millions of these files come solely from the United Kingdom and in total occupy about 12 petabytes (one million terabytes), which is 4.000 times more than what was leaked through the Panama Papers, which were about 2,6 terabytes.
The leak has affected, not only individuals, as information that could be critical for a company has also been found, for example, an attempted patent that was recorded in a document classified as 'strictly confidential', as well as source code belonging to an application subject to copyright, in which the design and workflow of a software provider site for Electronic Medical Records is described, as well as details of the application's copyright.
All this at the doorstep of the entry into force of the European Regulation for data protection. All those organizations that hold personal information of residents in the European Union must adapt to the new legislation regarding data processing, information security, compliance with standards and contractual relationships, before the 25 of May of 2018.