Hackers Stole U.S. Customs And Border Protection's Traveller Photos

[AisleSeat]

Licence plate images and photos of individuals who travelled in and out of the United States were taken in a malicious hack impacting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), according to a report in the Washington Post. The agency learned last month about the breach, which took place thanks to a hack of an unnamed subcontractor.

CBP, which blamed the subcontractor for failing to follow security and privacy rules by transferring the agency’s photos to its own network, operates a database of visa and passport photos as part of a face recognition system and database used widely at American airports despite criticism for privacy and accuracy failures. The agency processes over 1 million travellers per day and is building up to use the face recognition system in at least 20 airports thanks to a Trump executive order.

Last month, Perceptics, a company that builds and sells licence place readers, was hacked. The data was stolen and made for sale almost immediately. It is not currently known whether this hack is separate from the breach CBP announced today.

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