Crimes involving stolen personal data increasing, ministry warns

Crimes involving the infringement of citizens' personal information are on the rise, with the number of related cases investigated by police having increased significantly over the past two years, said Sun Jinfeng, political commissar of the Bureau of Network Security Protection at the Ministry of Public Security.

Since 2020, police nationwide have resolved 36,000 such cases and have detained 64,000 criminal suspects. Over 30 million illicit mobile cards and more than 300 million illicit online platform accounts have been shut down, according to the ministry.

The sectors in which these crimes have occurred have become increasingly diverse, covering industries such as government, healthcare, education, real estate, logistics and e-commerce, Sun said.

As a result of the crimes, various illicit activities have emerged, including telecom fraud, phone harassment and paid malicious online postings, he said.

Sun said that criminals are employing a variety of methods to illegally obtain people's personal information, including impersonating e-commerce customer service representatives, employing hacking techniques to steal data, hiring industry insiders to leak information to them and collecting data illegally through mobile apps.

Their criminal activities are interconnected, with clear divisions of labor set for information stealing, trafficking, recruitment for certain crimes, processing stolen data, and money laundering to form a massive underground big data industry," he said.

"Crimes involving the infringement of citizens' personal information have become a breeding ground for some illicit industries, seriously infringing upon citizens' personal rights and property security and disrupting China's market economy and social management order," he added.

Combating and rectifying these crimes require the participation of every citizen, Sun said. The general public should raise awareness about personal information protection, limiting criminals' means to inflict harm. Relevant companies should enhance their sense of responsibility, implement security measures and regulate the scope of information collection and usage.

Furthermore, industry insiders should foster legal consciousness and refrain from collecting or transferring people's personal information.