Christie's auction house data breach exposes precise GPS Coordinates of Artworks
Take action: People should ALWAYS disable their phones saving GPS data in photos. If for nothing else, then to protect their artwork.
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A cybersecurity incident involving a data leak at Christie's auction house has exposed the precise locations of artworks owned by affluent collectors who had submitted photos of their art for appraisal and sale on consingment.
The photos submitted by collectors were published on Christie's website offering the art for sale, with all metadata intact, including the GPS coordinates of the photo taken.
In simple terms, around 10 percent of uploaded images of art for sale on the Christie's website contained exact GPS coordinates, revealing not just the street address but the precise position of the artworks.
For everyone that's still a bit confused, yes, most smartphones by default save the GPS coordinates of your locaton in the photo metadata when you take a photo. It's very wise to disable this feature.
German cybersecurity researchers discovered this vulnerability and alerted Christie's, which fixed the issue. The fix could have been implemented sooner, but the auction house declined assistance from the researchers.
While the auction house emphasizes its commitment to protecting client information and privacy, it remains uncertain how they will directly communicate this breach to the affected clients.
