Danish government database breached, 8 million citizens' records stolen

The Danish government has confirmed a significant data breach affecting its Central Person Register (CPR), a central database containing information on citizens and residents. The incident, which occurred in September and was discovered on October 2, resulted in the theft of data belonging to approximately 8 million individuals. This includes names, addresses, and Danish social security numbers.

Minister Christina Egelund described the breach as a "serious incident." The CPR database holds information on about 11 million people, with some records dating back decades, exceeding Denmark's current population of roughly 6 million.

Authorities stated that the unauthorized access was gained through the abuse of a Danish company's legitimate access to search the CPR system. The identity of the perpetrators has not yet been disclosed. This breach is considered the largest in Denmark's history and follows similar cyberattacks on national identity databases in other countries, such as Turkey in 2016 and incidents involving India's Aadhaar database.