The Dutch National Police (Police) has confirmed that its network has been hacked and that a threat actor has gained access to work-related contact details of Dutch police officers.
Officials say it is “highly likely that a state actor is responsible” for the attack, which leaked phone numbers, full names, email addresses and some private data of its 65,000 employees, but investigations continue into its “nature, extent ‘ , and the consequences of the data breach.’
The chairman of the Dutch Police Association calls the hack ‘a nightmare’ and says that the priority is to ‘protect data, protect colleagues’. The agency confirms that police must now use two-factor authentication to prevent further data loss.
Continuous monitoring
It is not clear exactly how much data was compromised, and police have not yet named the state they believe is behind the attack, but have confirmed this will not happen until all details have been collected and analyzed.
“Based on intelligence information, police immediately took strong security measures to counter this attack. To prevent the perpetrators from becoming more aware and not to jeopardize further investigations, no more information can be shared at this time.” the police confirmed in a statement.
This type of attack is becoming more common as critical infrastructure is attacked more often than ever. Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe and its Ukraine allies have found themselves on the receiving end of cybercriminals seeking to exfiltrate sensitive data.
Threat actors from around the world use critical infrastructure as a way to cause maximum damage by exploiting information, installing malware or crippling operations, leaving citizens without access to important services. It is not yet clear what the motivations for this attack were, but it will almost certainly not be the last of its kind.
Via BleepingComputer