A “cybercrime hunter” by the name of Vinny Troia identified the database of email addresses, phone numbers and social media accounts of about 1.2 billion people. Most of the information had been gathered by People Data Labs, a company that scrapes the web for personal information and sells it. The company’s website says its contacts include “70%+ decision makers in the US, UK and Canada.” Troia reported the server to the FBI, and it’s since been shut down. (Wired, Bloomberg)

Talking point: Troia isn’t sure whether People Data Labs itself or a hacker left the information on the open server, or whether it’s been used in any malicious way—certainly, it could be, he said. While there were no passwords, credit card or social insurance numbers in the four-terabyte document, it had enough information to easily impersonate someone online, or target them with misinformation. The leak is part of a growing number of data exposures. Troia’s threat intelligence firm Data Viper identified over eight billion exposed data records so far this year, up from four billion in 2017.