Revolut Reportedly Disclosed User Passports and Bitcoin Data to Fraudulent Government Request

WHY IT MATTERS

When you sign up for a crypto or financial service, you typically have to verify your identity by submitting documents like a passport — this is called KYC, or Know Your Customer. The company then stores that data along with records of your transactions. In this case, Revolut reportedly gave away this sensitive information to someone pretending to be a government official. Think of it like a bank handing over your account records to someone who showed up with a fake police badge. This incident is a reminder that even when you trust a company with your personal information, that data can be exposed through social engineering — a type of attack where someone tricks people or systems rather than hacking them directly. For crypto users, leaked transaction histories can reveal how much cryptocurrency someone holds and where they send it, which could make them targets for further attacks or scams.