Recently Microsoft reported a data breach that affected one of its customer databases to the number of 250 million records. Between December 5-31, 2019, a database used for support case analytics was effectively visible from the cloud to the world. Forbes brought this to our attention in their article, “Microsoft Security Shocker As 250 Million Customer Records Exposed Online.”
Does that mean all 250 million records have made their way into the wrong hands? Probably not.
Personal information is deemed likely safe, at least for now. Microsoft accidentally left a database of customer service records exposed and even though the database contained information on 250 million people, very little of it is actually usable. Almost all personal information was redacted from the records, the only notable exceptions being some email and IP addresses.
It’s not known at this point if the databases were accessed by any else during the time that they were exposed online. Microsoft has said that “the investigation found no malicious use, and although most customers did not have personally identifiable information exposed, we want to be transparent about this incident with all customers and reassure them that we are taking it very seriously and holding ourselves accountable.”
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
