The known gearbest a major Chinese online shopping company exposed millions of user profiles and purchase orders, according to security researchers.
Researcher Noam Rotem discovered that an Elasticsearch server is leaking millions of files every week. These include customer data, orders and records from payments. The server is not even password protected access, allowing anyone to access the data.
Gearbest is ranked among one of the world's leading 250 websites and is partnering with leading companies such as Asus, Huawei, Intel and Lenovo.
The TechCrunch website contacted Gearbest via a dedicated security page, and made sure to inform them of the vulnerable server. Despite the report, however, the company did not lock the data or respond to the request.
Rotem, who shared them his findings with TechCrunch, stated that among the data circulating there are names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and customer orders from products that were purchased. The database also had information on payments and invoices.
"The content of some people's orders has turned out to be very revealing," says Rotem.
Exposed orders not only violate customers' privacy, but may endanger the company's customers in too many parts of the world where freedom of speech and expression is limited. Some of the listings are for sex toys and other purchases that could, for example, lead to legal interference where LGBTQ relationships are prohibited by law.
Countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan have strict laws that can result in death sentences.
Shenzhen-based Gearbest has a large presence in Europe with warehouses in Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic and the UK, where EU data protection and privacy laws are in force. Thus, any company that violates the General Protection Regulation Data (GDPR) may be fined up to 4% of its total revenue.
If you have an account on the site, it makes no sense to change your password, as the server is still a wild vine. But what you can do is change the password where you use the same.
How to Enable and Disable a User in Windows 10