A data security firm has allegedly found a group of a hacker who is operating out of China has been seen selling the data of around 200 million Japanese users on the so-called dark web.
According to a FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence report, in December last year, they spotted an underground Chinese-language website that was selling the sets of IDs, passwords and email addresses, and other important information.
It appears that the data have been assembled from hacking files of up to 50 smaller Japanese online retailers and gaming websites, and put up for sale as one big giant archive.
The BleepingComputer website has reported that "the price for the entire archive is ¥1,000 CNY ($150.96 USD). Several actors commenting on the forum thread where the suspected Chinese hacker was selling his data commented that they've bought the PII cache but did not receive their files. It is unclear if these comments are true, or if these were made by other data sellers trying to sabotage their competition."
The researchers say that they traced the hacker's online presence on a QQ social network ID that also gave a link to another hacker's social ID.
"This QQ address is connected to an individual living in China's Zhejiang province," researchers said.
