A data breach at Abu Dhabi Finance Week that exposed the personal details of high-profile delegates was limited in scope and quickly secured, organisers have said.
ADFW was alerted by an unauthorised cyber security researcher to a “vulnerability in a third-party, vendor-managed storage environment”, which related to a “limited subset” of those attending ADFW 2025, a representative told The National on Wednesday.
“The environment was secured immediately upon identification, and our initial review indicates that access activity was limited to the researcher that identified the issue,” the representative said.
“ADFW takes, and has always taken, data protection and platform security extremely seriously, and any breaches of security are also taken with utmost seriousness.”
The Financial Times reported that identity documents including passport details of some delegates at Abu Dhabi’s global finance investment and crypto event were available online.
The newspaper said scans of identity documents, discovered by Roni Suchowski, a freelance security researcher, included former British prime minister Lord David Cameron, billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard, and Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director and investor.
Other high-profile individuals included Richard Teng, co-chief executive of crypto exchange Binance, who is also the former chief executive of Abu Dhabi's ADGM, and Lucie Berger, the EU’s ambassador to the UAE, according to the FT.
ADFW did not confirm those identities nor comment on the individuals in its statement.
“The registered guests whose data fell within the limited scope of the issue have now been informed,” the ADFW representative said on Wednesday.
ADFW has grown to become one of the must-attend annual events for global financiers, asset managers and investors, policymakers and government officials.
The latest edition in December attracted financiers and asset managers with $63 trillion in assets, or about 53 per cent of the global gross domestic product, to the UAE capital.
