The credit card details of 19,000 Brits that shopped online were freely available on Google, it has been revealed.
Anyone using the search engine could have easily accessed not only the name and addresses of thousands of Visa, Mastercard and American Express card holders, but also the full card details too.
[ Learn how to secure your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and newsletter, both from InfoWorld. ]
It is thought cybercriminals accidently made the information live during a bid to sell the credit card details to other online criminals.
According to the banking body APACS, the majority of the cards had already been cancelled but the owners were probably unaware their information was available online.
An APACS spokesman told The Telegraph: "The data was originally posted on an unsecured server in Vietnam used by criminal gangs. The site was closed down in February but the information remained available on a 'cached' version of the page on Google, which stores historical snapshots of websites even after they are removed".
Google confirmed the information has since been removed.
See also: Stolen credit cards net cybercriminals 3.3bn
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