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Data breach

Taiwan consular bureau cyber-attack exposes passport photos and powers of attorney

First reported · Last reported · 30 related reports

Some websites of Taiwan’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were hacked, leading to the theft of 72,702 facial photographs submitted for passport applications and 26,072 scanned power-of-attorney files from the representative office in New York. An investigation also confirmed the exposure of photographs and application-related information from 774 ABTC applications. The bureau isolated and restored the affected servers and found no evidence that passport applicants’ names, dates of birth, identity card numbers or passport numbers had also been stolen. It said the validity of passports already issued was unaffected.

Key facts

Affected organisation
Bureau of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan
Incident type
Data breach
Occurred / detected
Not confirmed
Scale of damage
72,702 facial photographs for passport applications, 26,072 scanned power-of-attorney files, and photographs and application-related information from 774 ABTC applications
Cause / method
Hacking of some Bureau of Consular Affairs websites
Location
Taiwan

If your data was exposed

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Timeline

  1. The Bureau of Consular Affairs said passport photographs and power-of-attorney files had been stolen in a cyber-attack on some of its websites and that it had isolated and restored the affected servers.
  2. The exposure of photographs and application-related information from 774 ABTC applications was confirmed, and the bureau said the validity of passports already issued was unaffected.

30 related reports

The summary and key facts are written by AI from related reports and may contain errors. Check the original articles and the organisation’s official statements for accurate details.