A private database containing the
names of people with suspected links to terrorism was leaked online this week,
the BBC reports.
Security researcher Chris Vickery
said he found an out-of-date version of the World-Check Risk Screening database
from Thomson Reuters, which offers clients intelligence on individuals and
organizations suspected of money laundering and financing terrorism, among
other crimes.
In a Reddit post, Vickery refused
to elaborate on how he discovered the leak, though Thomson Reuters confirmed
it, telling the BBC that a third party exposed an out-of-date version of the
database online. It also said the material has been removed.
"We are grateful to Chris
Vickery for bringing this to our attention, and immediately took steps to
contact the third party responsible - as a result we can confirm that the third
party has taken down the information," a spokesperson told the BBC.
A marketing information pamphlet
describing World-Check extolls its benefits for clients concerned about doing
business with suspected terrorists or money launderers.
"We monitor over 300
sanction and watch lists and hundreds of thousands of information sources 24
hours a day, often identifying high-risk entities months or years before they
are listed," the pamphlet said. "In fact, between 2010 and 2011, we
identified more than 360 entities before they appeared on the US Treasury
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list."
Vickery claimed that his
two-year-old copy listed more than 2.2 million "heightened-risk"
individuals and organizations. That number has since grown to 2.7 million, of
which 93,000 are flagged as having suspected links to terrorism, according to a
Vice News article published earlier this year.
Random Access: HP Spectre 13
Today on Random Access, we're talking about the unlocked
Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, Jesus VR, and corporations' terrorist list. Our
tech demo for the day is the HP Spectre 13.
Posted by PCMag on Thursday, June 30, 2016
Source: pcmag.com
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