Abu Dhabi Finance Week Exposes Passports of Global Leaders via Cloud Misconfiguration
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Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW), a financial summit in the United Arab Emirates, apparently leaked the personal identification documents of high-profile attendees.
Freelance security researcher Roni Suchowski discovered that the data was accessible to anyone on the web without authentication. ADFW attributed the incident to a vulnerability within a third-party vendor's infrastructure. The exposed environment contained sensitive records from the December 2025 event, which hosted over 35,000 participants. It allowed indexing and public viewing of sensitive image files stored on the server.
The compromised data includes:
- Scans of more than 700 passports
- State identity cards
- Personal identification details of global leaders and executives
- Travel document metadata
The number of affected individuals is approximately 700. Notable figures exposed include former British Prime Minister Lord David Cameron, hedge fund manager Alan Howard, United States investor and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
ADFW officials stated they secured the storage environment immediately and contacted affected attendees informing them of the breach. The organization claims that an initial review suggests access was limited to the researcher who identified the vulnerability.
