March 30, 2015
The personal details of 31 of the world’s leading political figures were leaked to the organisers of a soccer tournament late last year, in a major data breach caused by an email autofill error.
The breach was caused by a staff member at Australia’s Department of Immigration and related to world leaders attending the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Australia last year. Details about the leak are just emerging, however, thanks to internal emails obtained under freedom of information by The Guardian.
Last November, Australia held the G20 Leaders’ Summit, with the east-coast city of Brisbane hosting dignitaries including US President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping.