Thousands of dog owners’ information suspected to have leaked online in Finland

Thousands of Finnish dog owners’ information is suspected to have leaked online, as announced by the Finnish Kennel Club in a statement yesterday. The leaked data was attributed to the organization, but the information does not belong to the Kennel Club; rather, it originates from a different service provider. The target of the suspected data breach has been confirmed by Yle, and the police have also acknowledged being aware of the situation. A report has been filed with the Data Protection Ombudsman, estimating that about 8,000 individuals may be affected.

The leaked data includes names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of individuals, reportedly collected during dog show registrations. Cybersecurity expert Olli Hönö states that the information has been shared on a hacker forum accessible via the open web. According to Hönö, the leaked data consists of around 100,000 textual lines and includes over 17,000 unique email addresses. He notes that while the potential scope of the breach may be under scrutiny, there are no critical details such as personal identification numbers, payment information, or passwords involved. The available data could potentially be used for criminal activities like phishing or other frauds, although there have been no reports of such events occurring so far.

The Cybersecurity Center, under Traficom, was informed of the issue by an external party and subsequently issued warnings. The affected party has filed a police report, and the Data Protection Ombudsman has stated that the case is under review but poses no high risk. Consequently, Yle will not disclose the name of the affected organization since no judgments have been made, and the risk remains low according to the Ombudsman’s evaluation.