Hacking attack on Red Cross exposes data of 515,000 vulnerable people
The International Committee of the Red Cross has been the victim of a cyber-attack in which hackers seized the data of more than 515,000 extremely vulnerable people, some of whom had fled conflicts.
“A sophisticated cybersecurity attack against computer servers hosting information held by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was detected this week,” it said in a statement.
“The attack compromised personal data and confidential information on more than 515,000 highly vulnerable people, including those separated from their families due to conflict, migration and disaster, missing persons and their families, and people in detention.” The body, which has its headquarters in Geneva, had no immediate indication as to who might have carried out the attack. It said the hackers targeted an external company in Switzerland that the ICRC contracts to store data. There was no evidence so far that the compromised information had been leaked or put in the public domain.
