Cybercriminals have once again targeted a vital organization, continuing with their nasty practices. The latest cyber attack happened at the Red Cross, where the hackers successfully pilfered data of thousands of vulnerable individuals.
Red Cross Faced A Cyber Attack
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has recently admitted suffering a cyber attack impacting thousands of people.
As elaborated in a press release, the ICRC mentioned detecting a “sophisticated cyber attack” on its systems this week.
The attackers typically exploited the systems involved in the Restoring Family Links program. It’s a joint program from the Red Cross and Red Crescent networks aimed at reconnecting people separated in the wake of conflicts, natural disasters, or migrations.
According to ICRC, they had to shut down those systems following this cyberattack, which hindered their humanitarian work. Explaining more about it, Robert Mardini, director-general ICRC, stated,
Every day, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement helps reunite on average 12 missing people with their families. That’s a dozen joyful family reunifications every day. Cyber-attacks like this jeopardise that essential work.
Besides the disruption the organization suffered, ICRC also confirmed that the attackers compromised the data of 515,000 vulnerable people. Mardini believes such an act would only add to the misery of those vulnerable people, thus appealing to the attackers to avoid misusing the data.
Your actions could potentially cause yet more harm and pain to those who have already endured untold suffering. 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.
What’s presently known is that the attackers targeted an external Swiss-based firm that stores ICRC’s data. However, it remains unclear who the attackers were, how they managed to infiltrate the network, and their intentions.
Nonetheless, for now, ICRC mentions having found no evidence regarding the exposure of breached data.