Viewing other people's secrets didn't even require the most basic authorization.
Personal documents of participants at a major financial forum in Abu Dhabi were discovered publicly available . The data leak affected hundreds of guests at the international event and included copies of passports and government ID cards.
The Financial Times reported that an unsecured cloud storage account linked to Abu Dhabi Finance Week, a government financial week held in December, was discovered online . The conference attracted over 35,000 attendees. The database contained scans of over 700 passports and ID cards, and the files were accessible through a regular browser without authorization.
Among the victims were former British Prime Minister David Cameron, billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard, and American investor and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. The incident has once again raised security concerns, as passport scans of participants at major events are increasingly becoming publicly available. According to Reuters, Howard declined to comment, and Cameron and Scaramucci had not responded at the time of publication.
Abu Dhabi Finance Week organizers informed the agency that the issue originated in the data storage infrastructure maintained by a third-party contractor . The vulnerability affected a limited portion of the registered guest database for the upcoming event. After identifying the error, access to the storage was quickly blocked and an initial analysis of file accesses was conducted.
The incident's representatives also noted that the activity logs show only one request—from the specialist who discovered the exposed directory. It was after his notification that the information was leaked to journalists. The server was put into secure mode following a request from the Financial Times.
The situation has raised questions about the practice of outsourcing the processing of personal data to external service providers during international forums and business meetings.
Personal documents of participants at a major financial forum in Abu Dhabi were discovered publicly available . The data leak affected hundreds of guests at the international event and included copies of passports and government ID cards.
The Financial Times reported that an unsecured cloud storage account linked to Abu Dhabi Finance Week, a government financial week held in December, was discovered online . The conference attracted over 35,000 attendees. The database contained scans of over 700 passports and ID cards, and the files were accessible through a regular browser without authorization.
Among the victims were former British Prime Minister David Cameron, billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard, and American investor and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. The incident has once again raised security concerns, as passport scans of participants at major events are increasingly becoming publicly available. According to Reuters, Howard declined to comment, and Cameron and Scaramucci had not responded at the time of publication.
Abu Dhabi Finance Week organizers informed the agency that the issue originated in the data storage infrastructure maintained by a third-party contractor . The vulnerability affected a limited portion of the registered guest database for the upcoming event. After identifying the error, access to the storage was quickly blocked and an initial analysis of file accesses was conducted.
The incident's representatives also noted that the activity logs show only one request—from the specialist who discovered the exposed directory. It was after his notification that the information was leaked to journalists. The server was put into secure mode following a request from the Financial Times.
The situation has raised questions about the practice of outsourcing the processing of personal data to external service providers during international forums and business meetings.
