Lionel Messi's personal data leaked online in major data breach

The personal details of some world sports stars have been stolen from official government databases and leaked online. Football icons Lionel Messi and Sergio Agüero were among a group of celebrities whose personal details were published online by a hacker claiming to have infiltrated the Argentine government's IT network.

Known as RENAPER (Registro Nacional de las Personas), the country's national registry contains, among other things, official identity card data and photos of Argentina's entire population of about 45.3 million people.

History of the hack

News of the hack emerged in September 2021 when a hacker, using the account name @AnibalLeaks, posted the data of 44 Argentine celebrities on Twitter. Along with football megastars, these included journalists and political figures, including Argentine President Alberto Fernandez.

Following these messages, the hacker posted an ad on a forum offering to find the data of any Argentinean and claimed to have access to all the files of the official database. Among them were full names, home addresses, dates of birth, gender information, dates of issuance and expiration of identity cards, labor identification codes, citizens' tax numbers and government photo IDs.

Implications

The hacker blamed "negligent employees" for the hack, which apparently occurred through a compromised VPN account linked to the Argentine Ministry of Health.

This contradicts an official statement from the Argentine government last week in which it claimed that the RENAPER database had not been exposed to any leak or breach. However, the same statement also said that eight government officials are currently under investigation for their possible involvement in the hack.

Source: therecord