150,000 CVs have been illegally viewed and possibly downloaded by a user at the Employee Insurance Agency, or UWV. The agency is considering filing a report and has reported the leak to the Dutch Data Protection Authority.
These concern CVs that users have uploaded via the werk.nl website. Users can register as job seekers on the site. The incident took place on May 4. Then a user viewed the 150,000 CVs, writes BN De Stem. The UWV says that the CVs may also have been downloaded. The organization knows who is behind the data breach, but does not reveal the identity of the person, NOS reports. According to the UWV, this does not concern an employee.
“It is very unfortunate that CVs have probably been viewed and possibly downloaded on such a large scale for improper use,” says Judith Duveen, Werkbedrijf director at UWV. the news broadcaster. According to the director, the agency 'immediately took appropriate measures' and will soon inform those affected.
It is not the first time that a large number of CVs have been leaked at the UWV. In 2019, 117,000 CVs were unlawfully downloaded from the UWV network. This happened via a hacked account of an employer. After this incident, the UWV started to monitor the inspection and downloading of CVs more closely. This allowed the person behind last Saturday's leak to be traced.