Crime Stoppers tips leaked

CBC reports that More than 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips leaked, CBC exclusive finds:

The personal information captured in some compromised tips was detailed enough for CBC to contact more than a dozen tipsters

The data was stolen last March by hacktivist collective Internet Yiff Machine.

Crime Stoppers tips is supposed to be anonymous, and for very good reason. The data was managed by a private contractor that claimed it was safe. It seriously failed and I don’t expect any consequences because there will be none. And apparently they got all of the 25 years of it.

Regardless of use, any database containing Personally Identifiable Information is bound to be exfiltrated (stolen). It’s not if, it’s when. And the lack of liability for this mean a lack of incentive to protect the data. Even more if it’s a for profit contractor. This applies to database for ID verification to check for age.