UK Visa Portal Leaks Thousands of Applicants’ Passports and Selfies Online — Issue Unresolved

TechCrunch has uncovered that a website called UK Visa Portal is publicly revealing passport and selfie images of users who registered and paid the site for a U.K. immigration visa.

An unnamed source alerted TechCrunch about this security issue, asserting that the site is exposing a minimum of 100,000 documents submitted by applicants during their application process.

The website is not connected to the U.K. government, and several users have reported mistakenly paying a fee to this service instead of using the official GOV.UK website.

TechCrunch has confirmed that the data leak originates from UK Visa Portal and has verified the authenticity of the exposed information by contacting affected individuals to ensure accuracy.

UK Visa Portal does not have a method for reporting security issues on its website and lacks names or contact information for its management team. An email was sent to the address listed on UK Visa Portal’s site, informing them of the ongoing security problem and asking for the appropriate management contact to discuss the issue. Due to the sensitive nature of the leaked information, TechCrunch indicated it could not share specifics with the general customer support email to prevent any potential misuse.

In response, TechCrunch received communication from the company’s supposed attorneys and public relations representatives. Once more, TechCrunch highlighted that because of the sensitive nature of the exposed files, it could only share information directly with the management team and requested to establish a connection with them.

As of now, TechCrunch has not heard back from UK Visa Portal’s management, and the security issue remains unresolved.

While the security situation persists, TechCrunch deems it important for users of the company’s services to be aware. TechCrunch is withholding specific details to minimize any further risk to their data.

Applicants do not need to engage a third-party service to apply for a U.K. electronic travel authorization unless they are working with an immigration attorney; they should apply directly through the U.K. government’s website.