In Ecuador was arrested the head of the company responsible for the leakage of data of millions of citizen

Daniel ZimmermannSeptember 20, 2019

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Earlier this week, it became known that a database containing 18 GB of personal data of almost all Ecuadorian citizens, including children, was freely available. Police arrested the head of the company that may be responsible for data leakage.

In total, experts found about 20.8 million records publicly available, which exceeds the country’s total population of 16.6 million. Researchers explained that this discrepancy in numbers was due to duplicates and old records that contain data about already dead people.

Experts who found an insecure server and believe that the local consulting company Novaestrat, which provides data analysis, strategic marketing and software development services for the Ecuadorian market, can be blamed for this data leak. As it turned out, they were right.

The Ecuadorian government responded quickly and harshly to reports of the incident. Thus, the Ministry of Communications and Informatization has already launched an investigation into Novaestrat.

“The company should not have owned the data it had, and now its employees have been prosecuted for allegedly violating confidentiality and share of personal data without permission”, – say officials in Ecuador.

The federal police have already raided the office of Novaestrat, who also served as the home of William Roberto G., CEO of the company, who was arrested and is being taken to the capital for interrogation. During the search, company equipment, data storage devices, and documentation were seized.

The Ecuadorian government is already conducting an investigation and is about to figure out how the company was able to get so much confidential information.

“It is already clear that Novaestrat has not cracked any of the country’s government servers. It is assumed that the data could be obtained in 2015-2017, during the previous political regime”, – say representatives of law enforcement agencies in Ecuador.

Recalling, the detected database contained data obtained from both state and private sources, including names, information about family members and relatives, data on registration of acts of civil status, financial data, as well as information about work and ownership of vehicles.

After the incident, the President of Ecuador asked to expedite the adoption of a new law on data privacy, which is designed to protect the personal data of citizens of the country. The country’s Ministry of Communications has already confirmed that it will fulfill the president’s wish and submit a new law to parliament over the next three days.

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