Data leak at Abu Dhabi finance summit exposes global figures, FT reports


FILE PHOTO: Silhouettes of laptop users are seen next to a screen projection of binary code are seen in this picture illustration created on March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Feb 17 (Reuters) - Former British ⁠Prime Minister David Cameron and hedge fund billionaire ⁠Alan Howard were among the hundreds whosepassports and ‌other identification papers were leaked online after they attended an Abu Dhabi conference,the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

The FT, citing documents, said scans ​of more than 700 passports and state ⁠identity cards were discovered ⁠on an unprotected cloud storage server associated with the Abu ⁠Dhabi ‌Finance Week (ADFW), a state-sponsored event that hosted more than 35,000 people in December.

U.S. investor and former ⁠White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci was ​also among those ‌whose identity documents were exposed, the FT said.

Howard declined ⁠to comment, ​while Cameron and Scaramucci did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

ADFW, in a statement to Reuters, said, "a vulnerability ⁠in a third-party vendor-managed storage environment ​relating to a limited subset of ADFW 2025 attendees."

"The environment was secured immediately upon identification, and our initial review indicates ⁠that access activity was limited to the researcher who identified the issue," ADFW added.

The data was accessible to anybody using a simple web browser, the FT reported, citing freelance ​security researcher and consultant Roni Suchowski, ⁠who discovered it. The server was made secure after the ​FT approached ADFW about the leak ‌on Monday, the report added.

(Reporting ​by Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Chandni Shah; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Harikrishnan Nair)

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

Next In Tech News

Vatican warns AI could lead to 'social control'
Global operation dismantles major cybercrime data leak forum
Indonesia gives Meta 'stern warning' over disinformation
Sony pulls back from PlayStation games on PC
China’s parents are outsourcing the homework grind to AI
Meta plans to develop custom chips to train its AI models
Honor 600 Lite launches at RM1,399 with 6.6in display, 108-megapixel camera
Analysis-Crypto bill hits new impasse, raising doubts over its future
Google settles with Epic Games with offer to lower its app store commissions
Where are China’s AI doomers?

Others Also Read