Breach at data aggregator Apollo exposes information of 212 million people

At the end of September 2018, the sales intelligence company and data aggregator Apollo notified its customers that over the summer Vinny Troia, the founder of Night Lion Security, had discovered that Apollo's database of 212 million contact listings and 9 billion data points relating to companies and organisations was freely accessible via the web. Apollo noted that it collects a lot of its information from public sources around the web; however, it scrapes Twitter and LinkedIn profiles for additional detail. The breach, however, also included client-imported data such as information from their Salesforce accounts. Apollo uses all this data, plus details of companies, to identify sales opportunities. The problem, however, is that while Apollo notified its customers, more than 100 million people whose information was exposed were not its customers, have never heard of the company, and have no idea that the breach affects them. 

https://www.wired.com/story/apollo-breach-linkedin-salesforce-data/

Writer: Lily Hay Newman

Publication: Wired