Red Cross hack exposes data on 515,000 vulnerable people, agency suspects criminals seeking profit

  • The International Committee of the Red Cross said it has suffered the largest hack in its history, exposing data of the ‘world’s least powerful’ people
  • The hack forced the group to shut down systems around its ‘Restoring Family Links’ programme that seeks to reunite families separated by conflict

Robert Mardini speaks during a news conference on the situation in Gaza, at the International Red Cross, headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 31, 2018. The International Committee of the Red Cross says hackers broke into servers hosting its data and gained access to personal information on more than a half-million people. Photo: AP

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is best known for helping war victims, says hackers broke into servers hosting its data and gained access to personal, confidential information on more than a half-million vulnerable people.

The Geneva-based agency said on Wednesday that the breach by unknown intruders this week affected data about some 515,000 people “including those separated from their families due to conflict, migration and disaster, missing persons and their families, and people in detention”. It said the information originated in at least 60 Red Cross and Red Crescent chapters around the world.

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