Friday, May 18, 2007
Is your identity safe?
Was shocked to read this. A glitch in the VFS site used to apply for Business Express Visa to UK (and to other countries like USA, China etc..) would mean that all application details submitted would be available to anyone free on the internet. All that was to be done was a simple URL re-engineering...
Those who have applied in the past for a UK visa would know the kind of details we submit when we apply for a Visa to the UK. This includes all your personnal details including the passport details..It is nothing short of a treasure trove for identity thieves and terrorists to impersonate you.
As things stand the Indian online visa applications have now been suspended. What is interesting is that in February, the UK Foreign Office had reportedly awarded VFS a five-year contract worth 190 million pounds for visa processing.
The channel 4 report added that the online system had been running since 2003 and was known to have been compromised for at least a year with tens of thousands of personal details up for grabs.
Those who have applied in the past for a UK visa would know the kind of details we submit when we apply for a Visa to the UK. This includes all your personnal details including the passport details..It is nothing short of a treasure trove for identity thieves and terrorists to impersonate you.
As things stand the Indian online visa applications have now been suspended. What is interesting is that in February, the UK Foreign Office had reportedly awarded VFS a five-year contract worth 190 million pounds for visa processing.
The channel 4 report added that the online system had been running since 2003 and was known to have been compromised for at least a year with tens of thousands of personal details up for grabs.
Labels: Noted
