TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL DATABASE EXPOSES CELEBRITY CONTACT DETAILS

Contact details for numerous celebrities, including Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, and Martin Scorsese, were exposed in a data breach involving a Tribeca Film Festival database. Cybersecurity expert Jeremiah Fowler discovered the exposure, which occurred when a database named "contacts" was accidentally made public online. Fowler identified the breach days before the festival began on 3 June. The Tribeca Film Festival, co-founded by De Niro, removed the databases following notification and stated it is actively investigating the incident.

The exposed data contained names, phone numbers, email addresses, and device information including iPhone versions and web browsers used by the celebrities. Fowler described the breach as the "biggest collection of celebrity data" he had previously encountered. The information was accessible online before the festival's opening, creating a window during which the data remained publicly available. The scale of the exposure extended across multiple high-profile figures in the entertainment industry.

The incident highlights the risks associated with inadequately secured databases containing sensitive personal information. Fowler's discovery and notification to the festival enabled relatively swift remediation, though the duration of public access to the data remains unclear. The festival has committed to investigating how the database became publicly accessible. No statement has been made regarding whether any of the exposed contact details were misused before the databases were removed.