Hackers steal data of 8 million Danish citizens from government database
The Danish government confirmed a major cyberattack on its Central Person Register (CPR), resulting in the theft of personal information for approximately 8 million individuals. The breach, discovered on October 2 and traced back to September, involved unauthorized access obtained by exploiting lawful access provided to a Danish company. Data stolen includes names, addresses, social security numbers, and other sensitive details. The CPR database contains records dating back decades and is used for tax payments and government services. While the population of Denmark is around 6 million people, the CPR holds data on about 11 million individuals due to its inclusion of deceased persons and those living abroad. The Danish minister described the breach as a “serious incident,” though no details were provided regarding who was responsible. This cyberattack marks one of the largest in Denmark’s history and follows similar breaches affecting national identity databases globally, such as Turkey's 2016 data leak and India's Aadhaar database exposures.
Topics: cybersecurity data breach Denmark