The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a humanitarian aid agency present in many countries, was the victim of a vast cyberattack which compromised the data of half a million people.
We sometimes smile at the stories of pirates who steal from the rich, much less when they steal from the poor. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced on Wednesday January 19 that it had been the victim of a cyberattack during which hackers seized the data of more than 515,000 people.
Of particular concern to the organization is that this data concerns vulnerable people, including women and men separated from their families as a result of conflict, disaster or migration, missing persons and their relatives, as well as detainees. The ICRC says the data in question came from at least 60 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies around the world.
“Although we do not yet know the perpetrators of this attack or their motivations, we are appealing to them today”laments Robert Mardini, Director General of the ICRC. Your actions risk causing even more harm to people who have already endured terrible suffering. Behind the information you now have in your possession are helpless individuals and families who are among the most vulnerable on the planet. We ask that you be humane and refrain from sharing, selling, disclosing or using this data in any way”.
The Red Cross also does not know the identity of the perpetrators of the cyberattack. She only knows that it targeted an external company based in Switzerland and mandated by the institution to store data. “There is no indication at this stage that the compromised information has been leaked or made public”she says.