Sao Paulo: Healthcare records and personal information of 16 million COVID-19 patients in Brazil were found exposed online, according to media reports.
The treasure trove of data got leaked after a hospital employee uploaded on open source code repository GitHub a spreadsheet containing key information such as usernames, passwords, and access keys to sensitive government systems, ZDNet reported on Thursday.
Among those affected by the leak are Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, seven government ministers, and the governors of 17 Brazilian states, said the report.
Besides names of patients, addresses and ID information, the exposed database also contained sensitive healthcare records including medical history and medication regimes.
The data was secured after a GitHub user found the spreadsheet with the passwords.
The document was spotted on the personal GitHub account of a person working with Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo.
Following the discovery of the exposed data, the user alerted Brazilian newspaper Estadao, which in turn notified the hospital and the Brazilian Ministry of Health after analysing the data, said the ZDNet report.
IANS
