CPR data leak causes delays on public information website

Denmark’s Digitalisation Agency says heavy traffic caused delays to a website where people can check which companies have access to their CPR information, after authorities announced that unauthorised parties had accessed 8.8 million people’s records. DR reports that the site was briefly unavailable when its journalists tried to access it.

The agency confirmed the delays but did not confirm that the website had been fully down. It also could not say how many people had contacted it about the breach because of the high volume of inquiries. Some people have asked how to set up a credit warning, a marker in the CPR system that makes it harder for others to take out loans or credit in their name.

The Agency for Societal Safety has advised people to be especially alert to unusual calls, emails or text messages. Its deputy director, Christine Engel Christensen, warned that scammers could pose as public authorities and ask people to click links or share information such as MitID details or passwords. She said people should never provide those details.

Christensen said people should assume they may be affected, given that the breach involves 8.8 million of the 11 million people registered in the CPR system, including people who are alive, have moved away or have died.

Denmark’s National Special Crime Unit has opened an investigation. At 4 p.m. today, Digitalisation Minister Christina Egelund is due to brief members of the Business and Digitalisation Committee and the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.