Red Cross falls victim to massive cyberattack

ICRC director-general Robert Mardini said the Red Cross was hit by a cyberattack, where hackers seized the personal data of more than a half million vulnerable people. — Keystone via AP/File

The International Committee of the Red Cross was the victim of a massive cyberattack in which hackers seized the data of more than 515,000 extremely vulnerable people, some of whom had fled conflicts, it said on Wednesday.

"A sophisticated cyber security 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.