The United Nations’ World Food Programme has disclosed a breach involving its self-registration application for Palestine, a platform used by people in Gaza to register for assistance.
The agency said unauthorized access affected personal information submitted through the system. The exposed data included names, ID numbers, phone numbers, and location details, including neighborhood information collected during registration.
WFP disclosed the incident to aid recipients in a Telegram message sent on May 31. In that notice, the agency said the registration platform had been temporarily suspended while it implemented urgent security and system protection improvements. It also said it was investigating the incident and monitoring the situation.
The organization told registered beneficiaries that they did not need to update, delete, or re-register their information. WFP said people already registered would remain in its assistance programs and that food, cash, and other aid would continue as normal.
In a later update sent on June 2, WFP said the self-registration platform was still paused while security measures were being strengthened.
The agency has not publicly disclosed the number of individuals affected. In a statement provided to The New Humanitarian, WFP said the unauthorized access happened on May 14 and involved information belonging to people in roughly 600,000 Palestinian households in Gaza.
The New Humanitarian also reported that more than 2 million people in Gaza had submitted personal information through WFP’s self-registration application, known as People Portal. WFP said the compromised data was limited to the Palestine self-registration application and did not affect SCOPE or other data management systems.
WFP said no party had claimed responsibility for the attack. The agency also said an investigation was underway.
The organization warned beneficiaries to be cautious of anyone claiming to represent WFP while asking for information or money. It also advised people not to click suspicious links or open suspicious messages.
WFP said its food, cash, and other assistance programs would continue through existing systems while the registration platform remained temporarily suspended.