There are various degrees of data breaches, most of which seem to focus on enterprises and consumers. But one hacker posted a data dump containing details of 5,400 Spanish police officers. This information includes full names, national ID numbers, and hashed passwords.
Mutual Social Security Police Data Breach
According to Spanish sources, the information has been stolen from the MUPOL website, which contains a database with records of Spanish police officers. Although the investigation has only just started, it is evident a data breach has taken place. So far, all signs point towards a subgroup of Anonymous being responsible for this leak.
Releasing just the data would not be much of a statement, though. The hacker included a message saying the leak was made in response to the Spanish “gag law”. This new ruling allows the state to fine people for up to US$665,000 for participating in unauthorized protests. Despite public outcry from the UN, civil rights groups and even Spanish journalists, the law passed last year.
“We are publishing a list of members of your ‘force’ to make you understand how thin the curtain (or the balaclava) is behind which you are hiding. Make no mistake, with every action, comes a counter-reaction and we all have to pay for our acts! Approximately 5,400 police members’ identities will be revealed and dumped into the free public domain, together with your ID numbers, emails, and password hash.”
It is not the first time Spanish police officials are under threat from hackers. Just last week, the Police Force of Catalonia was under attack by “Phineas Fisher”: This name might ring a bell for some people as he also breached Hacking Team and Gamma Group last year. Not someone anybody wants to have on their bad side; that much is certain.
Anonymous and Spanish law enforcement have not seen eye-to-eye since back in 2012. Several members of the hacker collective were arrested in Spain that year, which lead to retaliation by Anonymous. At the same time, this news paints a worrisome picture of how lackadaisical this valuable information is protected.
Source: Deep Dot Web
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