A huge database of names of terrorists (World-Check) and "high-risk individuals" containing more than 2.2 million records is said to have leaked online.
Investigator Chris Vickery claimed in Reddit that he had managed to obtain a copy of the confidential database (versions of 2014) that World-Check uses. This database is used by banks, governments and secret services around the world and contains names of terrorists and other criminals worldwide.
The leaked database contains more than 2,2 million records of people suspected of terrorism, organized crime, money laundering, bribery, corruption links, and "other illegal activities."
According to Thomson Reuters, running the World-Check, the service is used by 4.500 institutions, including 49 from the world's largest 50 banks, more than 300 governments and secret services, as well as many law firms.
Although access to the World-Check database is supposed to be limited by European privacy laws, Reuters reports that an anonymous leaked an old version of the online database.
Chris Vickery does not just reveal how he found the base, but he says:
"The leak is not a result hacking. I would say it is more of a leak than anything else, and not directly from Thomson Reuters. You will find out the exact details of this at a later time. ”
Meanwhile, he told the BBC that in order to read the database, no username or password is required code access, and clarifies that “this unprotected database was not hosted directly by Thomson Reuters itself.”
Let us mention that the specific base except that it lists the categories of each registrant, contains dates and places of birth of individuals in an effort to help banks and government agencies be sure they are looking for the right people.
The World-Check database has been repeatedly accused by bodies of fraudulently denoting individuals and organizations as terrorists.
