JAKARTA - Personal data of around 100,000 British police leaked on the dark web after hackers broke into an important law enforcement database. This leak makes officers who usually hunt down criminals also exposed to serious risks.
Anadolu Agency, quoted on Monday, August 3, reported that the data that emerged included names and contact details of the police. The leak was reported on Sunday night after a series of cyber attacks that also targeted a number of British institutions.
According to The Times, the wider cyber campaign also breached data from the Ministry of Defence, Home Office, National Crime Agency or NCA, and the Crown Prosecution Service or CPS.
The dark web is a part of the internet that cannot be accessed through a regular search engine and is often a place where hacked data circulates.
This latest leak comes just days after hackers targeted the Department for Education or DfE. The attack exposed more than 500,000 records.
Hackers also revealed the affiliation of the police unit after breaking into the Police National Legal Database or PNLD.
PNLD is an online legal database used by the police to assist in routine police work. This database is used by the police under the Ministry of the Interior throughout England.
Authorities believe the ExfilSquad cybercriminal group was behind the attack. This attack is said to be part of a series of recent leaks targeting Western institutions.
The impact does not stop at administrative affairs. A staff member whose data was leaked said he had dealt with serious organized crime and put high-class criminals in jail.
"The leak of personal information about me is very disturbing and puts officers at serious risk," the staff member said.
He also said he had to move to a safe house and sell a car because of his job.
"Now I have to remain very vigilant online and anticipate anyone who tries to get more serious information. This is not a good thing," he said.
The DfE hack saw 607,000 data published on the dark web. The attack is believed to have been carried out for financial motives, not ideological.
The hacker group wrote online that the data that had been posted would never be out of the public eye and would circulate on the internet forever.
"The payment we ask you for is only a small number compared to the cost of litigation due to the leakage of your data. Be smart and just pay," the group wrote.
Anadolu Agency said one source said most police had used the legal database at some point in their careers to carry out routine police duties.
The database is used by police in England and Wales, a region with 145,550 full-time police officers.
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