Angelina Jolie and a host of other Hollywood stars were reportedly affected by a significant data breach, according to cybersecurity expert Jeremiah Fowler. The breach allegedly exposed personal contact information, including phone numbers and private email addresses, making them vulnerable online.
The exposed data was reportedly found within 666,369 records associated with the Tribeca Film Festival, an event co-founded by Robert De Niro in 2002. Fowler described the incident as the "biggest he's ever seen" and claimed to have viewed details for both Jolie and De Niro.
Among the other notable figures whose information may have been compromised are British filmmaker Danny Boyle, actors Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Douglas, Rami Malek, and Sharon Stone, as well as directors George Lucas and Martin Scorsese. Fowler identified three exposed databases related to the festival and suggested the leak was a result of human error.
The majority of the affected records, spanning from 2019 to 2026, consisted of marketing materials and press releases stored on a cloud system. However, one database contained a backup file with a folder labeled 'contacts' that held the sensitive personal information.
Fowler stated that he contacted the Tribeca Film Festival organizers after discovering the breach, just days before the festival's commencement last month. The database was subsequently removed from public access.
This incident follows a previous discovery by Fowler earlier this year, where he found a data exposure involving what appeared to be stalkerware used to track a celebrity. That breach included 86,859 images, potentially screenshots from a user's device, related to a specific celebrity, and contained communications and private photos.
Fowler, a researcher for Black Hills Information Security, told The Sun on Sunday that the latest investigation uncovered "by far the biggest collection of celebrity data I've ever seen." He noted the presence of numerous "household names" whose data could have been exploited through malware.
The Tribeca Film Festival has been contacted for a statement regarding the reported data breach.