Passports, selfies of 100,000 UK visa applicants leaked online
What's the story
UK Visa Portal, a third-party website that assists people in obtaining UK immigration visas, has suffered a major data breach. The site is said to have exposed the passports and selfie photos of its users. An anonymous person alerted TechCrunch about the security lapse, revealing that at least 100,000 documents have been leaked from those who submitted their information for visa applications.
Website concerns
UK Visa Portal is not an official government website
Notably, UK Visa Portal is not an official UK government site. Some users have even complained about mistakenly paying fees to this platform instead of the official GOV.UK portal. The TechCrunch investigation confirmed that the data leak originated from UK Visa Portal and verified the authenticity of the exposed documents by reaching out to affected individuals.
Unresolved issues
Lawyers responded but no word from management yet
UK Visa Portal's website doesn't have a way to report security issues or provide any information about the company's management. After TechCrunch informed them about the ongoing security lapse, they received a response from the company's lawyers and public relations firm. However, no response has been received from the management yet and the security issue remains unresolved.
Information protection
TechCrunch didn't share specific details with customer support
Given the sensitive nature of the exposed documents, TechCrunch decided not to share specific details with UK Visa Portal's general customer support inbox. The outlet was concerned about the potential misuse of this information.