Who: China Railway’s (CR)

# of Accounts Breached: Nearly 5 million passengers’ data

What was affected: Names, ID numbers, and passwords.

How it happened: Data thieves stole the personal information of nearly 5 million people from an unconfirmed number of Chinese online ticket reservation platforms, according to Beijing police, who arrested a suspect in the case. According to media reports, China Railway’s (CR) official online booking platform 12306 suffered a massive data breach, with information later being sold on the dark web. Compromised data reportedly included names, ID numbers, and passwords.

Outcome: CR later denied the claims in a Weibo post, saying no users’ information was hacked. However, it warned passengers to avoid booking their tickets on unauthorized third-party platforms.