Cyber Incident Victim: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Date:
Nov 2015
Location:
France
Summary
Anonymous breached the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's website via an SQL vulnerability, leaking personal data of 1,415 officials from multiple countries during the Cop21 conference in Paris. The attack protested police arrests of climate march demonstrators, exposing usernames, emails, encrypted passwords, contact details, and security question answers. Hacktivists claimed the leak targeted institutional accountability rather than defacement, emphasizing opposition to police brutality and support for climate activism. The compromised data risked identity theft, financial fraud, and further unauthorized access to victims' digital accounts, mirroring prior Anonymous operations against perceived environmental and human rights injustices.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On November 30, 2015, during the United Nations Climate Conference (Cop21) in Paris, the hacktivist group Anonymous breached the website of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The attack occurred in direct response to the arrest of 208 peaceful protesters participating in a climate march in Paris the previous day. Anonymous exploited a simple SQL injection vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to the UNFCCC’s databases, extracting personal information belonging to 1,415 registered users and officials from hundreds of countries. The group publicly linked the attack to its condemnation of police actions against protesters and broader dissatisfaction with climate policy enforcement. Anonymous explicitly stated the breach was intended to protest both police brutality and the outcomes of Cop21, aligning with their support for the Global Climate March. They emphasized that data theft was chosen over website defacement to maximize impact on the organization.
The compromised data included two separate files containing usernames, email addresses, encrypted passwords, secret questions and answers, phone and fax numbers, PO Box details, city names, office addresses, and affiliated company names. Officials from Australia, Canada, Pakistan, Brazil, Belgium, India, the UK, the USA, Turkey, Germany, Norway, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, and other nations were confirmed among the victims. Anonymous threatened to release additional personal data unless their demands regarding protest suppression were addressed. The leak posed significant risks to victims’ digital security, as cybercriminals could leverage the exposed information for identity theft, email and social media account takeovers, or financial fraud. This incident aligned with Anonymous’s history of cyber-activism targeting entities perceived as opposing environmental or animal rights causes, including prior attacks on animal abuse forums and Japanese airport websites protesting dolphin hunting. No details regarding UNFCCC’s technical response, vulnerability remediation, or coordination with law enforcement were disclosed in the available source material.