On Monday, hackers claimed to have stolen the private data of up to one billion Chinese people.

According to ZNet, a technical news website, the "unidentified" hackers claimed to have hacked a database of the Shanghai police.

The hackers who carried out the cyber attack offered more than 23 terabytes of stolen data from the database, including names, addresses, places of birth, national identities, phone numbers and information related to criminal cases, for sale.

The hackers, who offered the data for sale on a forum, asked for 10 bitcoins, or roughly $200,000.

The show attracted 177 responses and 300,000 views within hours, and the list was posted by an anonymous user called China Dan.

The Chinese authorities have not commented on the incident, but if the operation is real, it will be the largest data breach in Chinese history.