Hundreds of thousands of files belonging to more than 200 law enforcement organizations across the United States have been leaked online after they were stolen by hackers from a web development company.
The files were made available by Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDOS), a WikiLeaks-style organization that describes itself as a “transparency collective” whose goal is the “free transmission of data in the public interest.”
The leak, dubbed BlueLeaks, includes information collected and generated by over 200 police departments, fusion centers, the FBI and other law enforcement organizations in various U.S. states. The leaked files include images, documents, tables, web pages, text files, videos, audio files, and emails.
DDOS says the information was obtained by hackers that are part of the Anonymous hacktivist movement.
A document obtained by security blogger Brian Krebs shows that the National Fusion Center Association (NFCA) has confirmed the validity of the compromised data and revealed that it originates from Netsential, a web development company based in Texas. Fusion centers are responsible for the gathering, analysis and sharing of threat information, and the NFCA represents their interests.
Netsential has apparently confirmed that its systems were breached, but it has not made any public comments regarding the incident.
The NFCA, which determined that the exposed files are dated between 1996 and June 2020, is concerned that threat actors could leverage the leaked data to target the impacted law enforcement organizations and their employees. The leaked data includes both personal and financial information.
The NFCA document revealed that the hackers compromised a Netsential customer’s account and abused it to upload malware that allowed them to exfiltrate other customers’ information from the web development firm’s systems.
Law enforcement organizations in the United States have been increasingly targeted by hacktivists over the past weeks following the death of George Floyd in police custody and the protests sparked by the incident. The personal information of many police officers was leaked online recently and while in some cases the details were obtained from public sources, some of it may have come from hacked online accounts.
Related: ProtonMail Accused of Voluntarily Helping Police Spy on Users
Related: Eight Arrested Over Cyberattacks Against Hong Kong Police
Related: China Police Get Power to Remotely ‘Inspect’ Company Networks in China
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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