Security Flaw Exposes Massive State Department Visa Database to Hacking

Cyber-defense experts found security flaws in a U.S. State Department system could have allowed hackers to access almost a half-billion visa records.
Security Flaw Exposes Massive State Department Visa Database to Hacking
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Cyber-defense experts found security flaws in a U.S. State Department system that could have allowed hackers to access almost half a billion visa records.

In a report by ABC News, hackers could have altered or stolen the sensitive data.

Meanwhile, officials downplayed the security gaps and said they would not be easy to exploit. State Department officials assure that altering visa records is not easy, since hackers would need the “right level of permissions” within the database.

“We are, and have been, working continuously ... to detect and close any possible vulnerability,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement to ABC News.

The system is one of the largest biometric databases and holds personal information like applicants’ photographs, fingerprints, Social Security or other identification numbers, and even children’s schools, of almost any individual who has applied for a U.S. passport or visa over the past 20 years.

An arriving passenger uses a new biometric scanner at George H. W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Feb. 1, 2008.  (Dave Einsel/Getty Images)
An arriving passenger uses a new biometric scanner at George H. W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Feb. 1, 2008.  Dave Einsel/Getty Images