As Radio-Canada reports , confidential data from 38 Canadian police agencies has been exposed by a group of hackers targeting US police authorities in a data breach known as BlueLeaks.
Last June, the Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) released thousands of documents, totaling about 269 gigabytes. Members of the group said the documents were obtained from members of Anonymous.
The leak came from cyberattacks on US police departments or their suppliers. Information from police departments across America, including emails, training programs and expense reports, was published online.
The RCMP confirmed that it was one of the organizations affected by the BlueLeaks breach.
The leaks of information involving Canadian law enforcement did not have a significant impact on sensitive operations and were generally related to "training, administration and unclassified material that is not sensitive," the RCMP said in a statement.
«We found that no secret information was disclosed», said Daniel Côté, an officer of NC3. «All the information that was online was of an administrative nature.»
The RCMP refused to name the other Canadian police services involved in the incident, “for privacy and operational reasons.”»
However, Steve Waterhouse, a cybersecurity expert and former cybersecurity officer at the Department of National Defense, argued that even administrative data can be harmful if it falls into the wrong hands.
«They could be email addresses or police officers' phone numbers in this information cache and they could sell them or use them to harm or harass the families of police officers», said Waterhouse.
The RCMP said it takes any breaches and that past and current employees involved in the breach have been notified.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada received a report from the RCMP regarding the leak on September 18, almost three months after it surfaced. In a statement, the office said it is reviewing the report and said that the incident raises serious concerns, «given the sensitive nature of the related information.»
