Breach exposes sensitive LAPD files stored in city attorney system

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However the files have since been removed

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  • Hackers breached LA City Attorney’s Office systems
  • 337,000 LAPD files stolen, including personnel and internal affairs data
  • Group “World Leaks” published archive, later removed

Cybercriminals have reportedly broken into the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office and stolen sensitive data belonging to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The LA Times reported of “a trove of sensitive Los Angeles police records”, including officer personnel files and documents from Internal Affairs investigations, having been nabbed by cybercrooks.

Around 337,000 files measuring 7.7 terabytes were reportedly accessed, which also included disciplinary histories and misconduct complaints, discovery documents from civil litigation cases, personal health information of officers, and witness interviews from criminal investigations.

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World Leaks

The LAPD released a brief statement confirming the findings, noting, “LAPD is aware of an incident within the LA City Attorney's Office, where unauthorized individuals gained access to a digital storage system. The digital storage contained discovery documents from previously adjudicated or settled LAPD civil litigation cases. The breach does not involve any LAPD systems or networks,” it said.

“We take this incident very seriously and are working with the LA City Attorney's Office to gain access to the impacted files to understand the full scope of the data breach. LAPD is committed to safeguarding its sensitive personnel and investigative information.”

In the meantime, a hacking collective calling itself World Leaks, posted the entire archive on its data leak site. Emma Best, the founder of transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets, confirmed the authenticity of the breach, and later said the files were removed from the website.

“I no longer see it on World Leaks' site, even logged in. Unclear what happened,” she said.

Usually, cybercriminals would demand a ransom be paid in exchange for deleting the data. Neither World Leaks, nor the LAPD, confirmed anything of that sort happening.

World Leaks is a spin off from an earlier group called Hunters International, infamous for breaching healthcare, manufacturing, and technology giants.

Via TechCrunch

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Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.

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