Over 1.4 GB of data containing files stolen from the Qatar National Bank (QNB) were dumped online yesterday by an unknown hacker through the Cryptome website.
The data dump contains 15,460 files and includes details such as QNB customer accounts, passwords, PINs, payment card data, home addresses, emails, and other PII (Personally Identifiable Data) data.
Victims at risk of financial fraud
Since first popping up online, there have been several journalists and security firms that have analyzed and have already confirmed the data's validity. There's no official tally of affected customers just yet, but the number is likely to rank in the hundreds of thousands.
The data included is more than enough for a malicious actor to commit financial fraud in the name of the affected clients.
Initially, QNB denied the data breach, but the company has issued a statement today saying they don't comment on social media speculation, but they have paid particular attention to mentioning that there's no financial impact on its customers, quasi-admitting the incident.
Data dump also contained intelligence information, internal bank documents
Besides info on the bank's clients, the data dump ZIP also contains two peculiar folders. One of them holds internal bank documents while the other includes intelligence information.
This latter folder is suspiciously named "SPY" and holds data on Qatar's Royal Family, the Qatari Ministry of Defence, and various intelligence agencies from Qatar (Mukhabarat), the UK (MI6), France and Poland.
In the same folder, details for Al Jazeera reporters were also included. This data typically includes basic reconnaissance info, such as social media accounts, addresses, contact information, and sometimes even images of the target and their close family members.
Number-wise, details for over 1,200 Al Jazeera employees were included, and some entries were marked with the word SPY.
QNB is one of the Middle East's biggest banks, operating in 27 countries across three continents, with 15,300 employees in 640 locations, and an ATM network of more than 1,400 machines. You can read QNB's full statement below.
