Ransomware Gang Publish Confidential Police Data on the Dark Web

The Clop ransomware gang has published confidential data held by UK police on the dark web, according to reports over the weekend.

The Mail on Sunday reported that the notorious cybercrime group accessed the information following a successful phishing attack on IT services provider Dacoll in October 2021. This provided Clop with access to vast amounts of material, including data held on the police national computer (PNC), which Dacoll manages.

According to the Mail on Sunday, the attackers uploaded hundreds of files on the dark web after Dacoll refused to pay a ransom demand. Among the PNC files uploaded were close-up images of motorists taken from the UK’s National Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.

It is currently unclear whether Clop holds other information held by the UK Police that it could release in the future.

The report quoted a spokesman for the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), who stated: “We are aware of this incident and working with law enforcement partners to fully understand and mitigate any potential impact.”

Breaches of data held by law enforcement agencies are especially concerning, given their highly confidential nature, the potential to disrupt criminal investigations and even fears serious risks will be posed to victims and witnesses of crime should the information fall into the wrong hands. Earlier this year, an FoI request revealed there were more than 2300 data breach incidents reported by just 22 UK police forces in 2020.

Commenting on the story, Jake Moore, cybersecurity specialist at ESET, said: “You may ..

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