Database containing personal info of 106 million international visitors to Thailand was exposed online

[ThailandRyan]

7 minutes ago, ThLT said:

There have been more than 106 million travellers in Thailand, especially in 10 years. Before COVID, there were 30-40 million per year.

 

So there's around a 1/3 chance that we are on there.

Fair enough if that is the way you view it.  I do know the numbers arriving really did not start to tick upwards until around 2011.  Looking at the chart below around 269 million tourists in 10 years.  How many of those were repeat entrants, like myself up until 2019 I came and left 6 times a year, and then how many are migrants entering the country.  True tourists numbers will be an unknown as far as the statistics go,

https://www.worlddata.info/asia/thailand/tourism.php

All data for Thailand in detail

Year	Numberof tourists	Receipts	% of GNP	Income per tourist
2019	39.92 m	65.08 bn $	11.96 %	1,630 $
2018	38.18 m	61.38 bn $	12.12 %	1,608 $
2017	35.59 m	57.06 bn $	12.50 %	1,603 $
2016	32.53 m	48.46 bn $	11.72 %	1,490 $
2015	29.92 m	44.85 bn $	11.18 %	1,499 $
2014	24.81 m	38.45 bn $	9.4 %	1,550 $
2013	26.55 m	41.77 bn $	9.9 %	1,573 $
2012	22.35 m	34.57 bn $	8.7 %	1,546 $
2011	19.23 m	30.92 bn $	8.3 %	1,608 $

[cape]

9 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Thai Bashing, 

Who are the fools who failed to secure the Immigration database?

[ThailandRyan]

2 minutes ago, cape said:

Who are the fools who failed to secure the Immigration database?

Please do not cut and quote part of a post to suit your agenda as it is against forum rules to take the quoted text and use it out of context like you have.

[bluemoon58]

Shocker 

[Orac]

5 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

There have been loads, can't be bothered to look them up. 

I am well aware that other govts have had data stolen from databases . The bit i struggle to understand is the people that seem to defend the govt for having unsecured databases and  where those criticising them for it are called ‘bashers’ apart from the govts themselves and their pr shills. Very few would find it acceptable because someone else did it before.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Orac

[Marco100]

Incredible mistake 

[jwbrit]

On second thoughts, stick to paper. The warehouses full of forms, applications, 90 days check-ins etc. that no-one will ever look at again, are far more secure.

[Keesters]

I hope none of you have signed up for all the wallets that some Thai companies, e. g. Lazada, True Money, offer. Far too much information is required for my liking. Lazada in order to give me a refund required my passport. I told them no as they didn't give me theirs when I paid. I'll only be paying them by credit card in future as when something goes wrong refund is back to the cc whereas any other kind of refund goes to the stupid wallet. I hope tney enjoy all the cc fees they'll have deducted. 

[WhatupThailand]

Hey, what about all the same information given every 90 days.

You think they keep all that paperwork ?

Maybe the maid and janitor has been selling it off, instead of

putting it in the dumpster, or how about the trash truck driver,

or any number of others along that unsecured path.

SO, Mai Pen Lai, Welcome to Thailand and Thai Style.

 

[QPRFC]

16 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

The Thai bashers missed the last part of the article in the link:

Comparitech has published many data incident reports like this one, including:

• 35 million US residents’ personal details exposed on the web
• India visa agency exposes 6,500 traveler’s visa applications on the web
• Prison phone service Telmate exposes messages, personal info of millions of inmates
• Social media data broker exposes nearly 235 million scraped profiles
• UFO VPN exposes millions of logs including user passwords
• 42 million Iranian “Telegram” phone numbers and user IDs were breached 
• Details of nearly 8 million UK online purchases leaked
• 250 million Microsoft customer support records were exposed online
• More than 260 million Facebook credentials were posted to a hacker forum
• Almost 3 billion email address leaked, many with corresponding passwords
• Detailed information on 188 million people was held in an unsecured database

-- © Copyright  comparitech 2021-09-21

I'm so glad that details of my 1461 women that I have 'entertained' in the last 4 years hasn't been disclosed

[kiwikeith]

18 hours ago, ezzra said:

Not surprised, surprised it didn't happen sooner though... for the Thais, a stark reminder of their past tourism glory and the ashes of past glory that it is now...

It was the Butler, sack him immediately, check out his garage for BMWs and Porches. 

[RichardColeman]

16 hours ago, smedly said:

that is pretty serious - time some heads started rolling 

 

nothing much more to add

only the low ones probably

[Thunglom]

11 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Conversely if a Thai person [or any other nationality for that matter] went to a bank in your home country, and requested a document printed in Thai script, would they be able to do it flawlessly?

Not a vlid comparison.  In fact in countries like uk and across EU most government documents are available in many different languages that reflect the needs of the population and are in general very well translated.

As a purveyor of English Language and occasional copywriting I'm acutely aware of the slapdash translations offered by thai companies that think they "know English"

Unlike Thai English is by far the most used language on the planet. It is the language of IT, computing industry and commerce - yet Thai businesses fail to recognise this over and over again.

[Thunglom]

18 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

The Thai bashers missed the last part of the article in the link:

Comparitech has published many data incident reports like this one, including:

• 35 million US residents’ personal details exposed on the web
• India visa agency exposes 6,500 traveler’s visa applications on the web
• Prison phone service Telmate exposes messages, personal info of millions of inmates
• Social media data broker exposes nearly 235 million scraped profiles
• UFO VPN exposes millions of logs including user passwords
• 42 million Iranian “Telegram” phone numbers and user IDs were breached 
• Details of nearly 8 million UK online purchases leaked
• 250 million Microsoft customer support records were exposed online
• More than 260 million Facebook credentials were posted to a hacker forum
• Almost 3 billion email address leaked, many with corresponding passwords
• Detailed information on 188 million people was held in an unsecured database

-- © Copyright  comparitech 2021-09-21

This is a sad effort to try and make the problem look less serious.

The failings of other countries in no way justifies or mitigates the failings of Thailand

[talahtnut]

Most of the form I've filled in contain lies anyway.

[Straight8]

20 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

The Thai bashers missed the last part of the article in the link:

Comparitech has published many data incident reports like this one, including:

• 35 million US residents’ personal details exposed on the web
• India visa agency exposes 6,500 traveler’s visa applications on the web
• Prison phone service Telmate exposes messages, personal info of millions of inmates
• Social media data broker exposes nearly 235 million scraped profiles
• UFO VPN exposes millions of logs including user passwords
• 42 million Iranian “Telegram” phone numbers and user IDs were breached 
• Details of nearly 8 million UK online purchases leaked
• 250 million Microsoft customer support records were exposed online
• More than 260 million Facebook credentials were posted to a hacker forum
• Almost 3 billion email address leaked, many with corresponding passwords
• Detailed information on 188 million people was held in an unsecured database

-- © Copyright  comparitech 2021-09-21

And why should we care about those, why? Thai forum Thai related, yet you think because it happens all over the world it somehow must be ok then???

[elgenon]

Is the government going to give us free ID and credit monitoring? Has the government officially apologized? Hmmm

 

They love and want tourists and take good care of them.

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, Thunglom said:

Not a vlid comparison.  In fact in countries like uk and across EU most government documents are available in many different languages that reflect the needs of the population and are in general very well translated.

As a purveyor of English Language and occasional copywriting I'm acutely aware of the slapdash translations offered by thai companies that think they "know English"

Unlike Thai English is by far the most used language on the planet. It is the language of IT, computing industry and commerce - yet Thai businesses fail to recognise this over and over again.

While I agree that officials who have daily contact with foreigners should have an acceptable level of English understanding, that goes with banks and such departments etc.

However outside of the city centres [where most foreigner and English speaking workers are found] life is not the same, go out into the boonies to a local branch and see what really happens.

[Sydebolle]

Send 'em a postcard from Thailand - promote sandboxes, dual pricing, complicated visa, 90-days and ™-30 regulations and open data sources ... 

[Andycoops]

22 hours ago, Orinoco said:

Thailand -4.0. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  LOL

No surprise to us all

The words smart and Thailand shouldn't be used in the same sentence, especially when it's about IT.

[cjinchiangrai]

On 9/21/2021 at 6:53 AM, Thujone said:

So, hopefully the details given for the vaccination program are as safe as houses...

That would actually be useful to publish.

[Iron Tongue]

Massive data breach... people just shrug and say "it's just Thailand".

It's not as if the credit card data of everyone who visited go-go bars in Patpong got exposed.  Now that would be a freak-out I'd like to see!

 

 

[Keesters]

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

While I agree that officials who have daily contact with foreigners should have an acceptable level of English understanding, that goes with banks and such departments etc.

However outside of the city centres [where most foreigner and English speaking workers are found] life is not the same, go out into the boonies to a local branch and see what really happens.

Or as a foreigner living here why not try and learn some Thai. Not tourists of course but those with intentions of staying here long term. When I decided to settle I took a 3 month course in Bangkok.

[ThLT]

17 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Fair enough if that is the way you view it.  I do know the numbers arriving really did not start to tick upwards until around 2011.  Looking at the chart below around 269 million tourists in 10 years.  How many of those were repeat entrants, like myself up until 2019 I came and left 6 times a year, and then how many are migrants entering the country.  True tourists numbers will be an unknown as far as the statistics go,

https://www.worlddata.info/asia/thailand/tourism.php

All data for Thailand in detail

Year	Numberof tourists	Receipts	% of GNP	Income per tourist
2019	39.92 m	65.08 bn $	11.96 %	1,630 $
2018	38.18 m	61.38 bn $	12.12 %	1,608 $
2017	35.59 m	57.06 bn $	12.50 %	1,603 $
2016	32.53 m	48.46 bn $	11.72 %	1,490 $
2015	29.92 m	44.85 bn $	11.18 %	1,499 $
2014	24.81 m	38.45 bn $	9.4 %	1,550 $
2013	26.55 m	41.77 bn $	9.9 %	1,573 $
2012	22.35 m	34.57 bn $	8.7 %	1,546 $
2011	19.23 m	30.92 bn $	8.3 %	1,608 $

Yeah, but I mean, it's not about precise numbers. Even if you take into consideration repeat visitors, then maybe there's now a 40% chance you and I are in the leak, and a 60% chance we aren't... so it's exactly a situation where we would want to know if your passport and other personal have been leaked.

Edited September 22, 2021 by ThLT

[ThailandRyan]

9 minutes ago, ThLT said:

Yeah, but I mean, it's not about precise numbers. Even if you take into consideration repeat visitors, then maybe there's now a 40% chance you and I are in the leak, and a 60% chance we aren't... so it's exactly a situation where we would want to know if your passport and other personal have been leaked.

The biggest issue, is do they want to notify all who have had information exposed, and just how the hell do you do that.  I mean do they send a list to each embassy and leave it to the embassy to notify the individual, and then at the end of the day exactly what does one need to do except keep checking their own personal history.  

[trainman34014]

19 hours ago, Bkktodd said:

Maybe they spell thai names better in thai.  English is not their first language….guess you forgot.  “My friend you” should remind you.  ????

According to my Thai Wife; a Midwife for 25 years, vast numbers of Thai's have very little command over their own Language, mainly as a result of their inefficient Education System and very often spell Thai people's names wrong as well !

[Thunglom]

9 hours ago, hotchilli said:

While I agree that officials who have daily contact with foreigners should have an acceptable level of English understanding, that goes with banks and such departments etc.

However outside of the city centres [where most foreigner and English speaking workers are found] life is not the same, go out into the boonies to a local branch and see what really happens.

You imply I haven't experience of "the boonies"??

I find that what helps most is learning the local language of the country I'm living in

[hotchilli]

6 minutes ago, Thunglom said:

You imply I haven't experience of "the boonies"??

I find that what helps most is learning the local language of the country I'm living in

Which was my point, learn the local language and not expect the host country to help you with everything.

[Thunglom]

18 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Which was my point, learn the local language and not expect the host country to help you with everything.

 

18 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Which was my point, learn the local language and not expect the host country to help you with everything.

what's that got to do with managing web sites and databases?

[ThailandRyan]

18 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Which was my point, learn the local language and not expect the host country to help you with everything.

Boo you villages speak everything except Bangkok Thai. Village I lived in near Wang Sam MO the ladies spoke Lao, Issan Thai, and Khmer. Hard to learn those quickly.