A security researcher claims to have uncovered a database in China that is publicly listing the personal information of more than 1.8m women, making available sensitive data such as their phone numbers, home addresses and “BreedReady” status. According to Victor Gevers, a Dutch researcher at non-profit organisation GDI.Foundation, the cache holding personal details of the Chinese citizens is “unprotected”. In screenshots posted to Twitter by Mr Gevers, the open database is seen to contain extensive categories of data about the women, including their age, identity card digits, birthday, marital status and “BreedyReady” status, which is thought to refer to whether or not a woman has a child or has the potential to “breed”. Mr Gevers found the youngest girl on the database to be aged 15 years old, with the average age of people listed on the database 32. Around 82pc of the women appear to be located in Beijing. “In China, they have a shortage of women. So an organisation started to build a database to start registering over 1.8 million women with all kinds of details like phone numbers, addresses, education, location, ID number, marital status and a “BreedReady” status?” he said on Twitter. Technology intelligence – newsletter promo – EOA China has more than 29,000 open databases, according to specialist search engine ZoomEye, and the personal data being so readily-available raises concerns about the security of open databases in the country. It is unclear what the purpose of the database would be, but evidence suggests that Chinese authorities are growing increasingly concerned about a drop in birth rates in the country. Some firms in the country have started giving women a “dating leave” to encourage marriage. The database, which was first found by Mr Gevers at the weekend, has been unreachable for a number of hours on Monday. “We will keep an eye on that IP address for a while to make sure it doesn’t come back online. We still do not know [who] the owner was or what the database was actually designed for,” he said. “When we do we will share this.”
