Hackers breach Denmark's population registry, data of 8.8m exposed

Hackers gained unauthorised access to Denmark's national population register, exposing the names, addresses and personal ID numbers of about 8.8 million people, the Ministry of Digital Government said on Monday, according to Kurier and in.gr. The register holds data on roughly 11 million people, including those who have died or emigrated, which is why the number of people affected exceeds Denmark's population of about six million, ERT News reported.

The breach affected the Central Person Register, known as CPR, which records living and deceased residents as well as people who have emigrated, Kurier reported. Authorities were alerted to an "anomaly" in the CPR system during September, the ministry said, according to Kurier. The ministry has not said how long the unauthorised access lasted before it was detected.

The unauthorised access was obtained through the legitimate access credentials of a Danish company, which has since been revoked, Kurier reported. "This is an extremely serious incident," Denmark's digital minister, Christina Egelund, said, according to Kurier and in.gr. She said officials, working with all relevant authorities, were still mapping the full extent of the breach, in.gr reported.

People whose names or addresses are registered as protected for safety reasons were not affected by the breach, in.gr reported. Authorities said they had introduced measures to prevent a repeat of the attack and had launched an investigation, though no suspects have so far been identified, Iefimerida reported.

Separately, Denmark's Technical University, DTU, said last week that unauthorised individuals had accessed its user database, potentially affecting around 200,000 current and former users, including staff, students, visitors and external partners, ERT News reported. It was not stated whether the two incidents are connected, and no evidence has been presented linking the DTU breach to the CPR register attack.