European Parliament Details

    Organization Logo

    European Parliament

    Strasbourg • 7500 employees • Governments

    https://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en
    France

    Industry

    Governments

    Security Incidents

    1

    The European Parliament (EP) is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU). It functions primarily to represent the citizens of the EU, enacting legislation, approving budgets, and overseeing the European Commission, the EU's executive branch. With its establishment tracing back to 1952, initially as the Common Assembly for the European Coal and Steel Community, it became a directly elected body in 1979, signifying a major milestone in increasing the democratic legitimacy of the EU.

    Over the years, the Parliament has expanded its powers through successive EU tre...
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    Security Incidents

    European Parliament Breach of May 2024
    Severity Score
    Significant to High

    Type

    Data Breach

    Summary

    In early May 2024, the European Parliament reported a significant data breach affecting over 8,000 current and former employees. The breach occurred in the Parliament's recruitment platform, "PEOPLE," and exposed highly sensitive personal data, including ID cards, passports, criminal record extracts, residence documents, and marriage certificates. This incident highlighted vulnerabilities in the Parliament’s cybersecurity measures and triggered two complaints with the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) by noyb, a privacy advocacy organization.

    Noyb criticized the Parliament for violat...
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    Severity

    The recent data breach at the European Parliament exposed sensitive personal information, including ID cards, passports, criminal record extracts, and residence documents of over 8,000 current and former employees. This breach also included highly personal information such as marriage certificates, potentially jeopardizing individuals' privacy and raising serious concerns about the Parliament's ability to safeguard data. The breach was exacerbated by a delay in detection and prior warnings about cybersecurity vulnerabilities, highlighting significant shortcomings in the Parliament's defenses.
    ...
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    Impact

    The European Parliament experienced a major data breach involving their recruitment platform, "PEOPLE," affecting over 8,000 current and former employees. Sensitive personal data, including ID cards, passports, criminal record extracts, residence documents, and marriage certificates, were compromised. This breach is particularly troubling as it may expose the sexual orientation of applicants and could be exploited to influence democratic processes.

    The breach caused no service outages but raised significant concerns about the Parliament’s cybersecurity measures. Investigations revealed that t...
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