Misconfigured Azure Blob at Raven Hengelsport exposed records of 246,000 anglers – and took months to tackle, claim infosec researchers

Dutch fishing supply specialist Raven Hengelsport left details of around 246,000 customers visible to anyone on a misconfigured Microsoft Azure cloud server for months.

The unsecured Azure Blob Storage server, hosting 18GB of company data covering at least 246,000 customers across 450,000 records, was spotted by the security arm of antivirus review site SafetyDetectives in early March.

“These files contained records that consisted of two different data sets, order details and logs of PII, both of which expose the sensitive personal information of Raven’s customers,” the company’s write-up this week explained.

“Order details from Raven.nl – containing customer IDs, delivery dates, discounts, shipping fees, payments, and shipment tracking numbers. Customer PII [Personally Identifiable Information] – names, surnames, addresses, genders, phone numbers, email addresses, and even the titles of some customers’ businesses were also leaked.”

Sadly, actually getting Raven, also known as Raven Fishing, to do anything about the issue proved challenging. “We immediately tried to get in touch with Raven once we discovered the open database, but did not receive a response from Raven regarding the breach,” SafetyDetectives’ researchers noted. “We later attempted to contact Raven through the live chat feature on their website. On the first attempt at reaching Raven here, Raven’s customer support agent ended the live chat without responding to our message.

“On the second attempt, we were connected with the same member of staff who told us that they couldn’t give us further contact details. We were informed that our request would be passed onto the relevant parties and we should be contacted if Raven saw fit. A few months later, after several additional attempts, a representative from Raven finally got back to us and the data was secured.”

SafetyDetectives also alerted Microsoft to the flaw, but the company’s Security Response Centre (MSRC) declined to take any action regarding the still-exposed server. Microsoft’s general customer support was also described as “not helpful,” failing to provide the security researchers with any assistance in raising someone technical at Raven to see the data secured.

A spokesperson for the Dutch Data Protection Authority, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, refused to comment on whether the company had notified it of the breach and on whether it had opened a case on the matter, stating only that the organisation “cannot make statements about investigations.”

Should it open an investigation, however, the consequences for Raven could be severe. In the European Union, data breaches are prosecuted under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which allows for a maximum fine of €20m or 4 per cent of the company’s annual turnover – whichever is greater.

Raven did not respond to a request for comment. ®