Rail Station Wi-Fi Provider in UK Exposed Traveller Data

[Aina]

The email addresses and travel details of about 10,000 people who used free wi-fi at UK railway stations have been exposed online. From a report: Network Rail and the service provider C3UK confirmed the incident three days after being contacted by BBC News about the matter. The database, found online by a security researcher, contained 146 million records, including personal contact details and dates of birth. It was not password protected. Named railway stations in screenshots seen by BBC News include Harlow Mill, Chelmsford, Colchester, Waltham Cross, Burnham, Norwich and London Bridge. C3UK said it had secured the exposed database - a back-up copy that included about 10,000 email addresses – as soon as it had been drawn to their attention by researcher Jeremiah Fowler, from Security Discovery. “To the best of our knowledge, this database was only accessed by ourselves and the security firm and no information was made publicly available,” it said. “Given the database did not contain any passwords or other critical data such as financial information, this was identified as a low-risk potential vulnerability.”