USPS Security Flaw Exposes Personal Data of 60 Million People

A security hole in a mail preview program may have made the data of 60 million customers vulnerable.

• By Sydny Shepard
• Nov 28, 2018

A security hole in a mail preview program from the U.S. Postal Service could have exposed the data of more than 60 million customers, giving third parties access to information including when critical documents and checks are scheduled to arrive in people's mailboxes.

An anonymous researchers discovered the weakness in the "Informed Visibility" service, noting that a web component called an API pretty much allowed anyone with a USPS account to view details of other users and, in some cases, to modify those people's account details.

The USPS says it has patched the security hole, but seemingly only did so after a security expert got into contact with them about it. The anonymous researcher who originally pointed to the issue claims to have alerted postal authorities about the issue more than a year ago.

The security flaw also lets any user find the account details of other users, including email address, user ID, phone number and more. The postal service says it has no information that any customer records were accessed. 

Officials also say they are investigating further "out of an abundance of caution."