An employee at the Australian immigration department reportedly sent the passport numbers, visa details and other personal information on all world leaders attending last year’s G20 summit, including President Obama, to the organizers of the Asian Cup soccer tournament.
“The cause of the breach was human error,” the director of the visa services division of Australia’s Department of Immigration wrote to the privacy commissioner, in an email obtained by The Guardian under Australia’s freedom of information laws.
“[Redacted] failed to check that the autofill function in Microsoft Outlook had entered the correct person’s details into the email ’To’ field. This led to the email being sent to the wrong person,” the email said. “The Asian Cup local organising committee do not believe the email to be accessible, recoverable or stored anywhere else in their systems.”
The officer wrote that it was “unlikely that the information is in the public domain,” and recommended that the 31 world leaders not be made aware of the breach, The Guardian reported.
“Given that the risks of the breach are considered very low and the actions that have been taken to limit the further distribution of the email, I do not consider it necessary to notify the clients of the breach,” the officer wrote.
It is not clear whether the immigration department subsequently notified the world leaders of the breach after the initial assessment, The Guardian reported.
On Monday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told reporters the administration is “looking into [the reports] and we’ll take all appropriate steps necessary to ensure the privacy and security of the president’s personal information,” The Hill reported.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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