Restoring Family Links, a program that helps reunite families separated by war, disaster, and migration, was recently attacked by Cyber criminals.
A staggering 515,000 data of people was hacked by unknown intruders where they gained access to personal and confidential information including those family seeking for missing family members affected by conflict, migration and disaster. According to reports, the hacked data originated in at least 60 Red Cross chapters worldwide.
ICRC said the breach targeted an external contractor in Switzerland that stores data for the humanitarian organization, for now there is now information whether the data was shared publicly or not.
Agency spokeswoman Crystal Wells said that while the ICRC cannot assure that the records were stolen “we feel it is likely. We know that they have been inside our system and have had access to our data.”
“The real people, the real families behind the information you now have are among the world’s least powerful. Please do the right thing. Do not share, sell, leak or otherwise use this data.” Mardini stated on the appeal.
The Red Cross reported that it has never previously seen a data breach of this magnitude. The System for Restoring Family Links has been forced to shut down indefinitely as a result of the hack.
