U.S. Customs and Border Protection says photos of travelers into and out of the country were...

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post



U.S. Customs and Border Protection says photos of travelers into and out of the country were recently taken in a data breach

By Washington Post Staff June 10 at 4:05 PM

On Monday, CBP said it learned last month that the images, which also include license plate photos, were accessed through the network of one of its subcontractors. Customs maintains a database including passport and visa photos. CBP declined to say what images were stolen or how many people were affected.

The CBP database is used at airports as part of a facial-recognition program from the agency.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2019/06/10/u-s-customs-and-border-protection-says-photos-of-travelers-into-and-out-of-the-country-were-recently-taken-in-a-data-breach/

[Historic NY]

1. The gang that can't shoot straight is responsible for our safety.......morons.

[Igel]

3. In a sense.

"CBP did not name the contractor. It said it learned of the data breach on May 31 and that the subcontractor had transferred copies of the images to its company network in violation of government policies and without the agency’s authorization." https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-customs-says-travelers-images-exposed-in-cyberattack


Regulations, policies, and procedures. Firewalls are only good if you stay on one side and don't let holes get punched through them.

[bronxiteforever]

2. This is a big story & Congress needs to find out how many were stolen

We will never get the right answer from the executive branch.
I would love to hear from National Security experts on how bad this is. I will “watch this space”.

[ZERTErYNOthe]

4. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says photos of travelers into and out of the country were...

So, a bit of a side rant here, but this is the tip of the iceberg.

* We know that these photos are collected and stored for an indeterminate amount of time
* We know that license plate readers are deployed in many fixed locations, as well as most patrol cars.
* We know that police have the ability to scan license plates real time, as anyone who has been busted for missing their emissions can tell you (not most people, but yes, I forgot my emissions, and my license plate was scanned as I was doing 70 mph on an 8-lane highway, and I got pulled over for it).
* We have public (garbage trucks in DC) and private entities (Not just airport authorities) scanning and recording licenses and location data. How do they use that data? How long do they store it?
* Red light cameras. I'm not sure how to approach this. We have been told that the data is only stored for violations, yet when FOIA requests have been fulfilled, such as the one for Metro Bus violations, it turns out that video has been saved for years, despite no violation being reported.
* And in DC, we have a program to include private cameras in the government surveillance network.

I'm not against most of these, but there is no public policy regarding any of this. It's the wild-wild-west of digital surveillance.

[WePurrsevere]

5. This looks like the same hack reported on 2 weeks ago...

in UK's The Register.

According to WaPo article the agency learned May 31st but the article in The Register was published the 23rd. It's the same company name mentioned and basic story.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/05/23/perceptics_hacked_license_plate_recognition/

Maker of US border's license-plate scanning tech ransacked by hacker, blueprints and files dumped online
Perceptics confirms intrusion and theft, stays quiet on details