Security researchers at Upguard made the discovery several months ago, when they found a server with data from Mexican content company Cultura Colectiva without so much as a login password. Anyone could download the 146 gigabyte database. Since then, they have tried to get the database shut down, but contact with neither Cultura Colectiva nor Amazon led anywhere. In the end, it was via Facebook, which in turn contacted Amazon, that the server was shut down.
An IT consultant Bloomberg spoke to says Amazon Web Services has previously drawn criticism for making it easy for customers to unwittingly leave private data unprotected on servers, but in recent years has made efforts to protect customers — and by extension all Internet users — from such fads.
Cultura Colectiva creates content for social media (so-called “content”) for the Latin American market. It is therefore not likely that many Swedish users have been affected.