IINs, addresses and phone numbers: data of 16 million Kazakhstanis could have been sold on the Darknet

Tengrinews.kz — The data of 16 million Kazakhstanis may have been sold in the black-market segment of the internet — the darknet. This version was voiced by Vice Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Doszhan Musaliyev while answering a question about a database containing the personal data of millions of citizens that had come into the possession of employees of a collection agency.
How the data may have leaked
According to Doszhan Musaliyev, the large-scale database containing information on 16 million citizens may have been collected and “leaked” over years. Collectors, as one possible scenario, may have bought it on the darknet.

“I would assume that these 16 million records were accumulated over years, possibly even decades. Most likely, there is a single database being sold on the darknet, and they may have obtained the information from there. But this is only an assumption,” Musaliyev explained.

Collectors had data on almost all Kazakhstanis
In June of this year, a database containing the personal data of almost 16 million Kazakhstanis was seized in Zhetysu Region. According to the investigation, employees of a collection agency illegally used information about millions of citizens. They had access to IINs, phone numbers and addresses.
The case is being investigated by the police, the prosecutor’s office and the NSC.
Data had leaked before
In the summer of 2025, the personal data of 16 million Kazakhstanis appeared online. At the time, the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development said the leak was most likely caused not by a hack, but by the “unlawful use of legal access” to databases. An inspection found that most of the information had been stolen back in 2022.
Later, in April of this year, it became known that Kazakhstan was investigating a criminal case over the illegal collection and sale of citizens’ personal data.