Techfail: passport numbers of 31 world leaders leaked by accidental email

In what’s become the latest tech security blunder to surface, 31 world leaders have had their passport numbers, visa details,  and other bits of info, leaked by some daft “computer-user” who mistakenly emailed the sensitive information to the wrong party after forgetting to double-check the sender portion of MS Outlook that had been auto-filled.

The 31 world leaders, who include US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, were assembling in Brisbane, Australia, to attend the 2015 G20 international conference — the annual forum where government and central bank representatives from 20 of the world’s largest economies meet to discuss secret world domination and clandestine economic warfare. Just kidding — G20 aims to facilitate high-level discussions between world leaders in order guide public policy toward achieving international financial stability.

The information was leaked when an unnamed employee at the Australian Department accidentally emailed the list to organizers of the Asian Cup, the Asian Football Confederation’s international tournament that’s also held in Australia. Startled by what had mistakenly occurred, the employee request that the AFC organizers delete their side of the email and within in 10 minutes, both copies were deleted.

Although the incident occurred back in November 2014, it was only revealed on March 30th, after The Guardian obtained an email correspondence between a director at Australia’s Department of Immigration and the Australian Privacy Commissioner following a Freedom of Information request. In it, the similarly unnamed director argues that informing the parties involved was unnecessary because both copies of the email were deleted and the AFC organizers do not believe it’s stored on their servers. “Given that the risks of the breach are considered very low and the actions that have been taken to limit the further distribution of the email, I do not consider it necessary to notify the clients of the breach.” 

It’s worth noting that the leak did not contain personal addresses or contact information, and birthdates, full-names, and titles are typically in the realm of public domain, however, passport numbers are a tad more sensitive and could potentially wreak havoc at a later date when the person steps down from public office.

Source: BBC