Czech Justice Ministry investigates potential data leak affecting 2M people

The Czech Justice Ministry is investigating a potential data leak that may have exposed the personal information of nearly 2 million people, according to local media reports Tuesday.

A test version of the ministry’s new commercial register mistakenly made sensitive data publicly accessible, Czech Radio’s iROZHLAS.cz news outlet reported.

The information included birth numbers, unique personal identifiers comparable to Social Security numbers in the US.

A separate programming error also allowed access to documents that were not intended to be made public.

After being alerted to the issue, the ministry took the test system offline and notified the country’s cybersecurity and data protection authorities.

The extent of the incident remains under investigation, but nearly 2 million people may have been affected.