Cyber Attack: Passport data from 12,000 Germans online including Argentina, France, Israel...etc

---

Hackers have posted passport data for hundreds of thousands of people online. Among them are 12,000 Germans, 11,000 Swiss citizens who were in Argentina between January and mid-March.. The data comes from the immigration authorities of Argentina. Identity theft threatens .

The attack occurred on August 27, 2020 around 7 a.m, numerous border officers reported to the IT support of the Argentine Interior Ministry because the systems were not working. This is what it says in a complaint that the Argentine immigration authorities submitted to the public prosecutor. In order to prevent the attack from spreading, it was decided to shut down the systems. Shortly afterwards, hackers sent a message: data had been encrypted and would only be released again in return for a cash payment.

In Argentine media reports it is said that the attackers are said to have demanded four million dollars from the Argentine immigration authorities to decrypt the data. When the agency failed to pay, the hackers uploaded a two gigabyte file to the Internet on September 10th. They published the link and password for the file on a blog on the Darknet.

People with diplomatic passports are also affected

According to BR- Information, the published data set contains information on hundreds of thousands of travelers from several countries, including more than 12,000 German citizens, who entered or left Argentina between the end of February and April this year. BR reporters have checked the authenticity of the data from several people.

Among other things, it contains names, dates of birth and passport numbers, as well as information about which travel document was used, i.e. also which persons have a diplomatic passport. According to BR research, high-ranking German diplomats are also affected . In addition to the 12,000 Germans, there is also data from hundreds of thousands of citizens from Argentina, France, Israel, Switzerland and Canada.

The perpetrator is still unknown

It is unclear who is behind the attack. According to BR information , the malicious program used is blackmail software (ransomware) with the name Netwalker. According to IT security experts, there are indications that this was developed by hackers from Russian-speaking countries.

On September 12, the Argentine immigration authorities published a statement on Twitter: The stolen data only made up one percent of the annual data on travel movements. The database itself was not compromised. Work is being carried out on improving the security of IT systems in order to prevent further attacks.

Consumer advocates warn against identity theft

Oliver Buttler from the Baden-Württemberg consumer center warns that criminals could use the data to steal identity for example, open accounts at online banks on behalf of the injured party. This can result in large sums of damage or damage the reputation of those affected, Especially if you unintentionally become part of a later investigation and are confronted with crimes that you did not commit at all.

The deputy leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, Konstantin von Notz, speaks in the BR interview of a serious process. He calls on the federal government to look into the incident. In this respect, the question arises as to whether those affected do not have to be informed promptly in order to protect themselves against possible criminal acts with their data. And that must at least be checked properly.

Federal government: No knowledge of specific persons

In response to a BR request, the Foreign Office said that reports on the incident had been noted. Further findings are not available. The Federal Ministry of the Interior states that the Argentine authorities confirmed the incident on request. However, the federal government has no knowledge of which specific people are affected by the incident.

The Interior Ministry does not consider it necessary for those affected to have a new passport issued.