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Bill Gates's social security number, address, credit report and more... published by hackers Join thousands of others, and sign up for Naked Security's newsletter

by Graham Cluley on March 14, 2013 | Leave a comment Filed Under: Celebrities, Featured, Hacked, Microsoft, Privacy

Bill Gates is the latest celebrity to have had his personal information published on a website that has exposed the social security numbers, addresses and personal financial information of a number of people in the public eye.

As with the leak earlier this week of personal data belonging to - amongst others - the likes of Kim Kardashian, Michelle Obama, and Beyoncé, it appears that the private information has been sourced from a trio of credit reporting companies - Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

Although the FBI are said to be investigating who is behind the "Secret Files" website, it is currently still accessible.

And whoever is behind the mystery website has been busy continuing to update it - with personal information of more public figures including Mitt Romney, Tiger Woods, and R Kelly as well as the founder of Microsoft.

What still isn't clear is just how unauthorised parties managed to fraudulently access the records of well-known figures without authorisation.

One theory is that those behind the website were able to gather information on the internet about the celebrities, and then use that data to successfully impersonate their targets and access the credit histories.

No doubt, in time, we'll find out. But how many more celebrities will find themselves doxed in the meantime?