China Railway denies leak of users' data

China Railway denies users' data leakage on its official ticket booking website, 12306.cn, on the night of Wednesday, thepaper.cn reported on Thursday.

The denial came after rumors emerged online on the afternoon of Wednesday that 30 million pieces of data used on 12306.cn from 2016 to March 2018 were reportedly leaked online, including "phone number, password, payment password, name, ID number, and answer".

It was claimed that the leaked information was being sold for 10 bitcoins on dark web. Currently, a bitcoin is worth more than 40,000 yuan ($6,256).

On Wednesday night, 12306.cn said in a reply to thepaper.cn that they had not received any notice of large-scale leakage of users' data.

China Railway also reminded travelers of buying tickets from official platforms, including 12306.cn and mobile app Railway 12306, instead of other platforms, to prevent the potential risk of data leakage.

Technically, the official ticket booking platforms do not have access to users' payment passwords as third-party payment platforms are used to complete a business transaction. A person close to China Railway said the official ticket booking platforms do not save users' payment password.