May 13, 2024 at 12:37PM
IntelBroker claims to be selling stolen Europol data, including internal emails, employee details, and classified documents on the Dark Web. The breach targeted Europol Platform for Experts, causing its website to go down. Europol is investigating and confirmed no operational data was compromised. This follows a physical security breach earlier at Europol’s HQ.
Based on the meeting notes, it is clear that the well-known hacking outfit “IntelBroker” has advertised and claimed to have sold Europol data on the BreachForums Dark Web marketplace. The data includes internal emails, employee resume data, and various internal classified documents. The compromised data reportedly includes Alliance employees, FOUO source code, PDFs, documents for recon, and guidelines. The data appears to be from the Europol Platform for Experts (EPE), as the EPE’s website has been down since the incident.
Europol has confirmed that the incident is under investigation and has stated that the main target of the theft is the EPE, but no operational information is processed on this platform. Europol also pointed out that no core systems of Europol are affected, and therefore, no operational data from Europol has been compromised. Additionally, IntelBroker claimed that the data trove also includes information from other entities such as the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), the Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (CCSE), the Law Enforcement Forum, and Sirius, but Europol has not confirmed this wider claim.
It is also noted that in March, physical intruders broke into a secure storage room within Europol’s HQ in The Hague, making off with several files containing personal information of top law enforcement executives.
Finally, for more information on dealing with data breaches and what they mean for organizations, a free Dark Reading virtual event titled “Anatomy of a Data Breach: What to Do if It Happens to You” is scheduled for June 20.