An investigation has revealed that a Chinese company has amassed a massive database of 2.4 million people including many influential Canadians. The data does not appear to be private, but rather a collection of publicly available information scrapped from social media and news websites.
The List Builder..Shenzhen Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co. Ltd., the company responsible for assembling the massive database, has only 30 employees and is headquartered in an apartment building in Shenzen, China. The company also claimed to have developed tools to manipulate content on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.
It is unknown if this company is an arm of Chinese intelligence or just hoping to sell its findings.
Canadians Involved...The database includes 16,000 mentions of Canada with a short list of 3,767 Canadians who are categorized by grades of 1,2 or 3.
The List Builder..Shenzhen Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co. Ltd., the company responsible for assembling the massive database, has only 30 employees and is headquartered in an apartment building in Shenzen, China. The company also claimed to have developed tools to manipulate content on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.
It is unknown if this company is an arm of Chinese intelligence or just hoping to sell its findings.
Canadians Involved...The database includes 16,000 mentions of Canada with a short list of 3,767 Canadians who are categorized by grades of 1,2 or 3.
- Grade 1s include elected officials and senior bureaucrats, many MPs are on the list, and interestingly there is an emphasis on western mayors.
- Grade 2s are relatives of those in power, this list includes the Prime Minister's 11 year old daughter.
- Grade 3s are Canadians who have committed, mostly financial, crimes.
Zoom Out...All of the information in the database is publicly available, and in many cases nothing more than a single link but the layering of this information with other hacks sourced back to China can be combined for extremely precise insights. In fact, security experts believe China has collected personally-identifiable information on 80% of the U.S. population.
Let's not forget Canada's relationship with China has been rocky as of late, we doubt the Prime Minister will be happy to see his daughters name on a list.