Data From 200 Police Departments Hacked

In an unusual twist, the hackers’ own public statement seems to have vastly understated the extent of the breach. They announced on twitter that they took, and posted in searchable form, a trove that included ten years of data from more than 200 police departments, “fusion centers” and other law enforcement resources, and that the information included FBI reports, bulletins, “and more.” But an internal report from the National Fusion Center Association (NFCA), obtained by KrebsOnSecurity, says the breach included files that span nearly 24 years, up to as recently as June of this year, and that it includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, images of suspects, and in some cases bank account and routing numbers, and other sensitive personal and law enforcement information.  (Fusion centers are entities that facilitate information coordination between local, state and territorial law enforcement and federal agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The concept arose, according to the NFCA website, in the wake of 9-11.) The data was released on Juneteenth – June 19 – leading to speculation that the hack was related to, or at least in sympathy with, the worldwide social awareness and protest movement that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day. However, according to an attorney quoted in the Krebs post, this breach is unlikely to include much information about police misconduct, but may endanger lives by revealing names of undercover agents or contacts.