Carhartt data breach affects 12.9M, half of what ShinyHunters claimed
One AI and two trained eyes delved into the heavily padded leaks
Carhartt's data breach was significantly less severe than initially claimed by hackers ShinyHunters, according to security researcher Troy Hunt. Hunt's analysis found that 12.9 million individuals were affected, roughly half of the 50 million ShinyHunters initially reported. ShinyHunters leaked the data on August 13 after Carhartt's negotiations with the criminals over their $3.3 million ransom demand.
Hunt's investigation revealed that ShinyHunters' data included millions of lines of synthetic data, which inflated the affected individual count. Hunt identified anomalies such as .edu and .org email domains, random domain strings, and birth dates from the early 1900s, which were unlikely given Carhartt's clientele. After removing bogus data, Hunt calculated that 12,933,413 accounts in the leaked dataset were genuine.
These accounts contained names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses. Carhartt has not commented on Hunt's findings, but the company's data breach should be taken with caution until verified by trustworthy sources.
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