Some of the biggest sports stars on the planet have had their personal details stolen from official government databases and leaked online. Soccer icons Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero were among a first batch of celebrities who saw photos and personal details posted online by a hacker who claimed to have infiltrated the Argentine government's computer internet. Known as RENAPER (National Registry of Persons), the country's national registry includes, among many other things, the details of the official identity card and photographs of the entire Argentine population of about XNUMX million people.
Data breach in Argentina
The news of the hack broke out in September 1, when the hacker, using an account called @AnibalLeaks, published details of forty-four Argentine celebrities on Twitter. Alongside soccer megastars, the figures included multiple journalists and politicians, including Argentine President Alberto Fernández. The hacker followed these posts with an announcement on a hacking discussion forum offering to search for details of any Argentine and claiming to have access to each and every file in the official database. This included full names, home addresses, dates of birth, gender information, identity card issuance and expiration dates, work identification codes, procedure numbers, citizen numbers, and also government photo IDs. A Processing number is similar to a US Social Security number and must be protected by the user and the government to prevent fraud. Contacted by The Record, the hacker claimed that he plans to release a huge cache of data, probably about 8 to XNUMX million people, as well as continue to sell access to data online. The hacker blamed "irresponsible employees" for the breach, which appears to have been carried out through a compromised VPN account linked to Argentina's Ministry of Health. This goes against an official statement made by the Argentine government last week in which it asserted that the RENAPER database had not suffered any leak or data breach. The statement added that XNUMX government employees are currently under investigation for probably playing a role in the breach. Via: The Record