Data leak risks millions of private records for multiple companies

(KYMA, KECY/ CNN) - A massive data leak has exposed millions of people's personal information, including security numbers, birth dates and Covid vaccination and testing data.

Cybersecurity firm "Up-Guards" says at least 38 million records were exposed and the information. was publicly available on the internet for months.

Dozens of major companies, state and federal agencies and other organizations including American Airlines, Maryland's Health Department and New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Those three entities said there is no indication that their data was improperly accessed. The leak happened because the affected organizations mis-configured a setting in their Microsoft software.

Up-Guard alerted Microsoft and the affected organizations and the leaks were plugged and access to the information was removed.