The International Committee of the Red Cross just released an update on a hack incident that was discovered sometime this month. According to the statement, one of their cyber partners alerted them about suspicious activities in their Family Links services.

Photo courtesy of Juliana Amador Mesa, ICRC

The program in question works to restore and reconnect families separated by war, conflict, and other political issues undermining their freedom. As such, their servers contain information on thousands of missing people, their families, other contacts, and individuals/groups receiving services from the Red Cross or its substituents.

Unfortunately, the cyber team found traces that these servers were breached. As a result, approximately 515,000 people have had their personal data compromised and could become the targets of malicious activity or scams in the future.

Based on what the Red Cross has said so far, they have looked into rumors that this information is on sale on the dark web. There is no conclusive evidence to sufficiently back these up though. They have reiterated that this entire Red Cross hack incident was the fault of their own security practices and not the third-party security company’s.

As of now, they have taken action in the form of approaching and contacting all those 515,000 and related parties. They seek to proactively provide advice on what kind of suspicious behavior to look out for and who to contact if they receive anything that could be harmful. For those who aren’t sure what to do, giving your own local Red Cross a call or dropping an e-mail is the best option.

Featured image courtesy of Avast