Today’s big topic: Hacker shares 8.7 million ID-information with Politiken: The attack method shocks experts
What’s happening?
Denmark is grappling with what Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called »an incident that should not be able to happen« after a historic leak of the CPR register, the national system that assigns personal identification numbers to everyone living in the country. A hacker who has been in contact with Politiken claims that security was so poor that, »with a few simple steps«, it was possible to access personal identification numbers and addresses for »the vast majority of all living Danes«. The hacker shared detailed descriptions of the method, as well as the ID numbers and personal data of 8,749,975 people with the newspaper.
According to the hacker, the attack began after they found login credentials for a former employee at a small Danish company in a publicly available data leak. The password was allegedly 123456, and the hacker says there were no additional protections, such as two-factor authentication. Using homemade scripts, the attacker then made 14,919,352 queries to the CPR register over 10 days. Those queries allowed the person to identify data on 8,749,975 people, including names, addresses, dates of birth, gender, and whether a person was still alive.
Why it matters!
The leak is not only massive in scale – it also points to fundamental weaknesses in Denmark’s digital security architecture. Emil Hørning, cybersecurity expert, calls the situation »indefensible« and says: »It’s pretty insane to be sitting here with all these ID numbers on the table«. He adds: »It shouldn’t be possible to systematically pull data out of the register like this. That there wasn’t any alarm bell that rang earlier is beyond me«. He notes that systems used by many external users would normally have controls in place to limit lookups and detect unusual strain, but in this case, that wasn’t in place.
The case is also raising broader political and structural questions about access to highly sensitive state data. Aarhus University professor Jens Myrup Pedersen says authorities »apparently haven’t had control over the customers who have access to the CPR register«, nor over their supply chain or limiting the damage if someone gains unauthorized access. In his words: »You can’t have Denmark’s digital security depend on what some small company that has access to the CPR register decides to do«. Denmark’s digitalization minister, Christina Egelund (The Moderates), has now acknowledged that »overall security has not been good enough« and says that authorities have taken immediate steps to strengthen security while launching a thorough security review of the entire CPR system.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– The 76-year-old Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson has won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature
Anne Carson, who trained as a classical philologist, has for years topped bookmakers’ lists of likely Nobel laureates, and now she is receiving the prize for a body of work that has boldly and inventively forged new literary forms in playful dialogue with the classical tradition – not by bowing to the classical inheritance and turning it into a monument, but by playing with it.
– New Finance Bill Presented
Minister of Finance Peter Hummelgaard (The Social Democratic Party) welcomed reporters to the Finance Ministry. He said he was pleased to present the government’s first draft finance bill. The title of the bill, ’Denmark – a Denmark worth defending,’ served as Hummelgaard’s springboard for arguing that Denmark’s economy is in top shape despite geopolitical tensions. He emphasized that the government has had to make difficult choices in order to pursue a »responsible and fair« policy. That is reflected, among other things, in more money for greater security.
– More than a million Danes are now state pensioners – but many continue to work
A tally from the Statistics Denmark database Jobindsats, reviewed by the pension company Velliv, shows a record number of state pensioners. In August, there were 1,175,187 state pensioners, the news agency Ritzau reported. It was the 13th consecutive month to set a new record, the company said in a press release. The rising number of state pensioners is tied to the fact that Danes are generally living longer, and that the large postwar cohorts are now reaching retirement age.
This weekends itinerary
This weekend, the autumn holiday gets off to a bang. It’s Culture Night in Copenhagen, when more than 200 museums, churches, ministries, theaters and other institutions open their doors after dark. Here are a few suggestions for what you can see and hear.
What to hear?
Punk-tober? Copenhagen hardcore band SYL has just released a critically acclaimed record, and leather can handle a little rain, so why not lean into autumn with pounding drums, shouted vocals and anger? There’s plenty of that on offer this week, including at Ungdomshuset on Dortheavej in the Nordvest neighborhood, where The Grindcore Family Weekend is being held Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9-10. It’s a mini-festival giving the stage to 18 different underground grindcore and hardcore bands from, among other places, Germany, Poland and Serbia — and, of course, Denmark as well. Tickets from 90 kroner. Read more here.
What to experience?
You’ll also find music by Østerport Station, specifically at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning. In connection with Kulturnatten and the exhibition Nervetråde, you can catch concerts by the two Copenhagen musicians Emil F and Ydegirl. You can also explore the exhibition with mixtapes in your ears, created for the occasion by, among others, politician Rosa Lund and musician Heva Vaupel. Free access with a culture pass. Read more here.
By Nyhavn, you can also step into something close to Copenhagen’s Hogwarts. We’re talking about Forfatterskolen, which has produced a long line of prominent authors. For Kulturnatten, you can tour the school and attend a poetry reading, where current students read alongside former ones. Experience, among others, Anna Rieder, Jens Kæmpe and Christel Wiinblad. Free access with a culture pass. Read more here.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.