PL Risk Blog

Facial Recognition Database Breached

Written by Drew Smith | Mar 4, 2020 2:20:57 PM

Police who have used facial recognition software for their criminal investigations now have justified concerns after one of the many companies that handles such data revealed their database was hacked but not breached.

Clearview AI is a start-up software company that developed a program that could take any picture of anyone and then upload it to be paired up with any public photo the person has uploaded. This type of knowledge is considered extremely valuable to law enforcement as it allows them to hunt down criminals when it would otherwise take days or weeks to find a viable clue. Recently, the company revealed they were hacked but not breached, meaning that while hackers got into their systems, their procedures were able to stop them at the gate if you will. They were able to patch the issue that was exploited to get into the server, but this creates an understandable fear that someone’s biometric data can be compromised and stolen.[1]

As more data is used in everyday lives, it becomes a valuable treasure trove for malicious actors. Pay attention to what you share online and keep an eye on your various accounts online as they can be used by anyone for phishing and cyber extortion

[1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/data-breach-exposes-clearview-ai-client-list/