Thread by @zackwhittaker

Some background on our story yesterday. TechCrunch discovered the exposed data as part of an investigation into COVID-19 apps, and worked to identify the source and notify them of the breach — as we've done before when we've found security issues. (1/)

techcrunch.com/2021/02/17/jam…

We reached out Jamaica's Ministry of Health on Saturday (Feb 13) to make contact. We got a response on Sunday from spokesperson Stephen Davidson asking for more information. We sent details of the exposed server that evening. Davidson did not respond. Server remained open. (2/)

During this time we continued to investigate the breach, and on Tuesday (Feb 16) spoke to two Americans whose data was exposed on the server. They helped to narrow down the source of the breach and the owner of the server — a Jamaican government contractor, Amber Group. (3/)

I reached out to Amber Group's CEO Dushyant Savadia that afternoon (two days after we emailed the Ministry of Health) and a short time later the exposed data was secured. "We will be in touch shortly," said Savadia. I followed up again today, but still have heard nothing. (4/)

About an hour after our story went out, Jamaica's Ministry of National Security issued a statement (read it here: jis.gov.jm/jamcovid-secur…) that the security lapse was "discovered on February 16." Except it wasn't: the Ministry of Health knew about it days earlier. (5/)

Statement adds: "We have contacted travelers whose data may have been subject to the vulnerability." I've seen no evidence of this yet and nobody I've spoken to has received a notification either. At least half a million people's data was exposed. (6/6)

techcrunch.com/2021/02/17/jam…

This is the email chain of my correspondence with the Ministry of Health. beta.documentcloud.org/documents/2048…