They confirmed it was their data.'Ĭontacted for comment, WeSendit CEO Jens Herbst admitted the South African information had been uploaded onto the company's system. 'Shortly after the assurances, a whistleblower outside of Experian alerted us to the data being transferred via WeSendit. This is after they obtained a court order and seized electronic devices from the person they believed responsible for the breach,' Tlakula said. 'Experian gave assurances all the data was retrieved. 'We are trying to establish if the banking details of individuals have also been compromised,' she said.Ī tip-off from an anonymous whistleblower made Tlakula aware of the ominous new twist in the saga.

Tlakula said the file uploaded onto WeSendit contained the details of 24-million people and almost 800,000 businesses, including 'the banking details of 24,838 businesses'. Millions of citizens' and businesses' personal information is on the internet with no proper control over it.' 'The breach involves the cross-border flow of personal information. 'Our investigation will review absolutely everything around Experian's investigation. It will involve Switzerland's federal data protection and information commissioner. South African Information Regulator chair Pansy Tlakula said on Monday an independent cyber forensic investigator had been appointed to review an internal investigation conducted by Experian. News that the data hack, which the Hawks are investigating, has not been resolved triggered a scramble this week by SA's authorities to try to stop the information being traded. 'Credit bureaus list your income, assets, career history including reasons for termination, every account you have opened or loan taken, monthly instalments, payment history, every default judgment against you, your family relationships, and addresses and contact details.' The dumping of the data on the Swiss-registered data transfer website WeSendit has prompted a scramble to plug the leak and find out who is to blame for the theft.Ĭonsumer protection lawyer Trudie Broekmann said people should be afraid. The information, held by credit bureau giant Experian, includes data such as cellphone and ID numbers, addresses, banking and work details and e-mail addresses. The failure to retrieve the data and resolve the leak has left 24-million people and nearly 800,000 businesses potentially exposed to online fraudsters. The personal data of millions of South Africans, 'stolen' in one of SA's biggest data breaches earlier this year, has been discovered on the internet, despite assurances that the information had been recovered.

Experian leak