Mandatory identity verification systems used by big tech companies have made it easier for hackers to access personal information

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While states from Utah to Florida have recently required social media companies to verify the age of users in order to secure parental consent for minors to use social media, AU10TIX, the company used by some of the biggest platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok to verify identity, left personal information unprotected for over a year. Hackers could have stolen this information with little effort. This news is understandably concerning, but it should also upset well-meaning lawmakers who are trying to protect minors by enacting age verification laws for social media companies, many of which apparently use the company's services.

Not only are there local laws requiring users to verify their age before accessing social media, but federal bills such as the Child Online Safety Act would essentially mandate the same practice. Age verification requires individuals who wish to use certain websites or applications to upload a combination of their social security number, government issued identification, and/or face scan. States allow it. This practice has special power when parental or guardian consent is required, as it requires adults who claim to be the guardians of minors to prove that they are in fact the legal guardians of said minors. Additionally, social media companies would be held legally liable if they falsely assume that minors are adults, although many state bills make exceptions as long as these sites enforce age verification.

In our R Streets series on the fundamental issues of age verification, we have already covered the serious risks, such as data leaks and hacking, that come with uploading a user's most sensitive personal information to numerous websites. This possibility became a reality in this particular scenario.

404 Media is a series of AU10TIX [employee] Administrator credentials have been exposed online for over a year, making it easy for hackers and other criminals to harvest sensitive personal data of users. This includes names, birth dates, nationalities, ID numbers, and uploaded document types such as driver's licenses. This sensitive information is also tied to social media accounts within the portal. The potential for identity theft, financial fraud, and other data-related crimes is clear.

To make matters worse, 404 Media noted that, according to the timestamp and messages in the Telegram channel that posted the credentials online, the exposed credentials appear to have been harvested by the malware in December 2022 and first posted to the Telegram channel in March 2023. As a result, other individuals or entities intent on causing harm could have easily used these exposed credentials to log in and download sensitive personal data of users for over a year. The files contained a large amount of passwords and authentication tokens for various services used by employees, including Salesforce and Okta tools, as well as the logging service itself. The report further explains that the specific type of malware used in this data theft is often the first step in major data breaches.

AU10TIX told 404 Media that the incident was old and that the credentials had been revoked, but 404 Media discovered that the credentials were still working as of this month. After reporting that information, AU10TIX announced that it was decommissioning the associated system, more than a year after the credentials were first made public on Telegram.

The company said in a statement that its investigation found no evidence that the data had been misused, even though it was essentially readily accessible from around the world. The company also told 404 Media that it had notified its customers about the data breach. However, spokespeople for Fiverr and Coinbase, two of those customers, respectively, told 404 Media that they had not been informed of the issue.

With a clear understanding of past data breaches and cybersecurity best practices, we have long known that laws requiring age verification or parental consent for social media access will lead to exactly this outcome. Before rushing to pass these laws, lawmakers should consider the potentially very harmful, if unintended, consequences. The rampant hacking and data breaches enabled by age verification laws will inevitably put individuals who provide sensitive personal data at serious risk of identity theft and financial fraud.

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