Red Cross, having its headquarters in Geneva, was hit by a cyber attack, exposing details of over 500,000 people to the hackers. The details that were accessed and stolen by the cyber criminals includes of missing persons during the time of natural disasters such as the latest Tonga Volcanic eruption propelled tsunami and families separated because of conflicts and information of people in detention.
Cybersecurity Insiders has learnt from its resources that the attack took place on a Switzerland-based IT company that was storing and managing the data related to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
An official conformation on the ransomware group that targeted the internationally reputed organization and incident details are awaited.
And as of now, there is no evidence that the stolen information was put for sale on the dark web or was being misused as a tool to conduct identity theft.
Information accessed and stolen from the database includes 60 of Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies.
What’s concerning about the incident is that the digital attack triggered the authorities to cancel the Restoring Family Links program aimed to re-unite people with families who were separated during natural calamities, disaster or migration including the one linked to the latest Taliban war in Afghanistan where thousands fled for their lives to other countries such as Asia, Europe, UK, India and United States.
Note- Based in Geneva, the not-for-profit organizations have over 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide and works with an aim to protect human life, earth, health of humans and wants to prevent or end the human sufferings on the globe. Though it has 3 independent organizations, all the three stay united and work for/with common principles, objectives, symbols, statutes and humanity driven governance.
