A cyberattack on the U.K.’s Police National Legal Database (PNLD) has put the contact information of over 100,000 police officers and other justice workers at risk. The hack was detected on Sunday, July 26, and the ExfilSquad group calimed they took 135,000 contact records.
PNLD is an online legal resource service that has been used for more than 30 years by the 43 Home Office police forces in England and Wales, as well as the British Transport Police.
PNLD has a website called ‘Ask the Police.’ It gives answers to many common questions about police work and the law. In a statement today,the service says that the breach revealed the full names, jobs, and email addresses of police officers, staff, criminal justice workers, and government partners.
The names and email addresses of Ask the Police users who asked questions on the site are also seen as exposed.
The event is being looked into with help from cybersecurity experts and the National Crime Agency (NCA). There is no proof that passwords or other security details have been hacked.
PNLD does not hold confidential information relating to victims, witnesses, or offenders, and says no such data was impacted.
“All affected organizations were contacted in the days following the incident and provided with further information and guidance. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has also been notified,” PNLD says.
ExfilSquad claims 135,000 records
The ExfilSquad data stealing group said it was behind the attack on PNLD and shared sample data to prove it. They also asked for a ransom to stop them from releasing the rest of the stolen data.
ExfilSquad claimed 1.9 GB of data from PNLD, which has about 135,000 records. They claim this data includes details from 114,000 PNLD subscribers and 21,000 Ask the Police users.

Source: BleepingComputer
ExfilSquad is the same hacker group that recently said they attacked the American chip company Analog Devices. PNLD has confirmed the breach and publication of contact details but has not publicly attributed the intrusion or disclosed how attackers gained access.
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