Abu Dhabi Finance Week says data breach swiftly ‘dealt with’

ABU DHABI — Organisers of Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW) said Wednesday that a recent data breach affecting sensitive information of event participants has been addressed and measures taken to secure the systems, following the discovery of exposed documents online.

The security lapse, which came to light earlier this week, involved an unsecured cloud storage server linked to the event, exposing scans of passports, state ID cards, invoices and other files belonging to more than 700 individuals who attended the flagship financial summit. 

Among the high-profile figures affected were former UK Prime Minister Lord David Cameron, US investor Anthony Scaramucci, and senior executives from global finance and technology sectors.

ADFW — a four-day gathering hosted by the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) that brings together financial leaders, investors and policymakers from around the world — said in a statement that it “takes data protection and platform security extremely seriously.”

Organizers stressed that the security vulnerability was identified and the affected system was immediately secured once the issue was reported, and that their initial review indicates limited access activity beyond the security researcher who discovered the flaw. Attendees believed to have been impacted have also been notified, according to the statement.

The disclosure triggered concern among cybersecurity experts, as exposed identity documents could potentially be misused for identity theft, phishing, fraud or other malicious activities if obtained by threat actors. However, event officials and ADGM emphasized that immediate action was taken to contain the risk.

ADFW’s reputation as one of the region’s most influential financial events has grown in recent years, drawing tens of thousands of participants and major global institutions to Abu Dhabi’s capital-of-capital platform.

While the incident underscores the importance of robust digital security for global summits, the swift response by ADFW organizers reflects a commitment to resolving breaches and improving data protection measures moving forward.