
Tribeca Festival Data Breach Exposes Celebrities’ Contacts in Plain-Text Backup
A cybersecurity researcher uncovered a Tribeca Festival data leak that exposed 666,369 records from 2019–2026, including public-facing business contacts and a 13,535-entry “contacts” folder with names, emails and phone numbers of stars like De Niro, Lawrence, Jolie, Scorsese and Coppola. The data was stored in a plaintext backup left in the festival’s database and was removed quickly after disclosure; experts warn such exposed data could enable AI-powered phishing and other attacks, highlighting the need for stronger backups and access controls.




