UK Visa Portal spilled hundreds of candidates’ passports and selfies on-line — and hasn’t fastened the leak

A web site known as UK Visa Portal is publicly exposing the passports and selfie photographs of candidates who signed up and paid the location to acquire a U.Ok immigration visa, TechCrunch has realized.

An nameless particular person notified TechCrunch in regards to the safety lapse, saying that the web site is exposing no less than 100,000 paperwork from individuals who uploaded their passports and selfies to the web site as a part of the applying course of.

The web site will not be affiliated with the U.Ok. authorities, and some have complained that they mistakenly paid a charge to this firm as a substitute of utilizing the official GOV.UK web site.

TechCrunch confirmed that UK Visa Portal is the supply of the information leak and verified the authenticity of the uncovered information by contacting affected people to ask if their data was correct.

UK Visa Portal doesn’t have a technique to report safety points by means of its web site, nor does its web site present names or contact data for the corporate’s administration. TechCrunch despatched an e mail to the deal with listed on UK Visa Portal’s web site to alert the corporate that it has an ongoing safety lapse and to ask who in administration can settle for particular particulars to resolve the problem. Given the sensitivity of the uncovered information, TechCrunch defined that it couldn’t share specifics with the corporate’s common buyer assist inbox as a result of it couldn’t assure that the uncovered information wouldn’t be misused.

As an alternative, TechCrunch heard again from the corporate’s purported attorneys and public relations agency. TechCrunch defined once more that given the character of the uncovered information, it may solely share particulars immediately with the corporate’s administration, and requested that they put TechCrunch in contact with them.

TechCrunch has not heard again from UK Visa Portal’s administration. The safety lapse has nonetheless not been fastened.

Whereas the safety challenge is ongoing, TechCrunch believes it’s within the public curiosity that individuals who use the corporate’s providers are conscious of the problem. TechCrunch will not be publishing exact particulars in an effort to attenuate any additional danger to their data.

It isn’t essential to make use of a third-party service to use for a U.Ok. digital journey authorization, until you’re retaining an immigration legal professional, and candidates ought to apply by means of the U.Ok. authorities’s web site.