Animal rights activists dump a database of 111000 British gun owners so that activists can go knock on their doors and ask if they shoot animals

wow imagine what will happen when a giant database like facebook or google gets cracked open.


The names and home addresses of 111,000 British firearm owners have been dumped online as a Google Earth-compatible CSV file that pinpoints domestic homes as likely firearm storage locations – a worst-case scenario for victims of the breach.

As an exercise in amplifying a data theft to levels that endanger public safety, the latest evolution of the Guntrader database break-in is likely to become an infosec case study in how security breaches can become worse over time as stolen information is put to ever more intrusive uses.

Leaked online last week via an animal rights activist's blog, the stolen reformatted Guntrader database was explicitly advertised as being importable into Google Earth so randomers could "contact as many [owners] as you can in your area and ask them if they are involved in shooting animals."

Names, home addresses, postcodes, phone numbers, email addresses and IP addresses are included in the Google Drive-hosted CSV file – along with precise geographic coordinates for a large number of the 111,295 people listed in the breach.

The file was linked to from the activist's blog, a clearnet site hosted in Iceland, and presents a severe risk not only to British firearm and shotgun certificate holders but also anyone who moved house to one of the addresses mentioned in the leak of the stolen database, which contains data up to five years old.

Firearms are attractive to criminals. Targeted robberies and burglaries to steal them, while unusual, are certainly not unknown. Police have previously issued warnings to the licensed firearms community emphasising personal safety after a spate of robberies targeting licensed firearms owners outside their homes and at rifle ranges; the Guntrader breach could lead to a spate of such crimes.

[link to www.theregister.com (secure)]