Data leak on PDF conversion sites: thousands of user documents made publicly available

A team of Cybernews researchers discovered a serious data leak on two websites offering PDF file conversion services.

Here's What We Know

The PDF Pro and Help PDF sites, owned by the same UK company, left open Amazon S3 cloud storage containers, which led to the leak of users' personal documents including passports, certificates, ID cards and contracts. A total of 89,062 accessible files were found, of which 87,818 belonged to PDF Pro and 1,244 belonged to Help PDF.

Researchers emphasise that access to personal documents opens up a wide range of fraud opportunities for attackers, including obtaining loans, renting property and buying expensive goods on behalf of the victim. Despite the Cybernews team contacting service providers, the data remains accessible and any file uploaded to these sites can become public.

This incident serves as a warning to all internet users: before uploading private documents to random sites, you should think carefully about the security of your data and choose trusted services.

Source: Cybernews