An unknown perpetrator broke into the national register of persons Registro Nacional de las Personas.
The attacker hacked into the IT network of the Argentine government and stole the identity card data of the entire population of the country. The hack occurred last month and targeted the national registry of persons, Registro Nacional de las Personas (RENAPER).
The agency is a key link in the Argentine Ministry of the Interior as it is tasked with issuing national identity cards to all citizens. The information is stored digitally in a database available to other government agencies.
The first evidence of a RENAPER hack emerged earlier this month on Twitter, when the newly registered account @AnibalLeaks posted photographs of IDs and personal details of 44 Argentinean celebrities, including President Alberto Fernandez, several journalists, politicians, football superstars Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero.
The next day, an unknown person posted an ad on a hacker forum, offering to see the personal data of any Argentine user.
In a press release on October 13, Argentina's Ministry of the Interior announced that a VPN account assigned to the Ministry of Health was used to query the RENAPER database for 19 photos “at the very moment they were posted on Twitter”.
According to officials, “the RENAPER database has not been affected by any leaks or breaches,” and authorities are currently investigating. The Record contacted the person who rented access to the RENAPER database from a hacker forum. As it turned out, the criminals have a copy of the RENAPER data, which contradicts the government's official statement.
Information available to attackers includes full names, home addresses, dates of birth, gender information, ID card issue and expiration date, labor identification codes, Trámite numbers, citizen numbers, and government photo IDs.
The attacker hacked into the IT network of the Argentine government and stole the identity card data of the entire population of the country. The hack occurred last month and targeted the national registry of persons, Registro Nacional de las Personas (RENAPER).
The agency is a key link in the Argentine Ministry of the Interior as it is tasked with issuing national identity cards to all citizens. The information is stored digitally in a database available to other government agencies.
The first evidence of a RENAPER hack emerged earlier this month on Twitter, when the newly registered account @AnibalLeaks posted photographs of IDs and personal details of 44 Argentinean celebrities, including President Alberto Fernandez, several journalists, politicians, football superstars Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero.
The next day, an unknown person posted an ad on a hacker forum, offering to see the personal data of any Argentine user.
In a press release on October 13, Argentina's Ministry of the Interior announced that a VPN account assigned to the Ministry of Health was used to query the RENAPER database for 19 photos “at the very moment they were posted on Twitter”.
According to officials, “the RENAPER database has not been affected by any leaks or breaches,” and authorities are currently investigating. The Record contacted the person who rented access to the RENAPER database from a hacker forum. As it turned out, the criminals have a copy of the RENAPER data, which contradicts the government's official statement.
Information available to attackers includes full names, home addresses, dates of birth, gender information, ID card issue and expiration date, labor identification codes, Trámite numbers, citizen numbers, and government photo IDs.