GENEVA >> The International Committee of the Red Cross, best known for helping war victims, says hackers have broken into servers hosting its data and gain access to personal, confidential information of more than half a million vulnerable people have received.
The Geneva-based agency said on Wednesday that the break-in by unidentified intruders this week affected data on about 515,000 people, “including those separated from their families due to conflict, migration and disasters, missing persons and their families, as well as persons in custody”. It said the information came from at least 60 Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations around the world.
“An attack on missing people’s data makes the agony and suffering of families even harder to bear,” said ICRC director-general Robert Mardini in a statement. “We are all appalled and perplexed that this humanitarian intelligence is being targeted and compromised.”
According to the ICRC, the breach targeted an outside contractor in Switzerland who stores data for the humanitarian organization and there was no indication the information was publicly shared or leaked.
Agency spokeswoman Crystal Wells said that while the ICRC could not say with certainty that the records were stolen, “we think it is likely.” We know they hacked into our system and had access to our data.”
Wells said the ICRC did not want to speculate on who might be behind the intrusion.
Mardini made an appeal to the person or persons behind the intrusion: “The real people, the real families behind the information you have now are among the most vulnerable in the world. Please do the right thing. Do not share, sell, disclose or otherwise use this data.”
This indicates that the ICRC suspects that the perpetrators are criminals who want to profit from the data – for the purpose of identity theft, for example.
The ICRC said the breach has forced it to shut down systems around its Restoring Family Relations program, which aims to reunite family members separated by conflict, disaster or migration.
Ewan Watson, an ICRC spokesman, said the organization had never seen a hack of this magnitude before.
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