A cybersecurity breach has led to the release of a vast collection of sensitive files from over 200 police departments and FBI offices across the United States, in an incident now known as “BlueLeaks.”
Business Insider reports that hackers have recently breached the security of a Houston-based web-service provider called Netsential, which works with state law-enforcement agencies in the U.S.
This breach has led to the disclosure of hundreds of gigabytes of potentially sensitive files from various U.S. police departments. The leaked data, made available in a searchable database, includes information that can be sorted by officers’ badge numbers. The files were hosted by fusion centers and state agencies that facilitate information sharing among police departments and were stolen in the security breach.
It’s worth noting that the leaked files do not reveal any significant police misconduct, instead, they primarily consist of emails and internal memos that show how police departments and the FBI have monitored protests across the U.S., especially those that followed the death of George Floyd.
The documents include specific details shared among police departments about the clothing, tattoos, and social media handles of individuals at protests. They also reveal that law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have been actively monitoring social-media accounts believed to be organizing protests.
One unclassified FBI memo to police departments, dated late May, raised concerns about the safety of “law enforcement supporters,” citing specific tweets. Other internal memos included in the leak showed police departments exchanging information about specific clothing, signs, and cars of protesters deemed potential threats.
In some cases, officers made arrests after tracking people down using photos taken at protests.
The data dump, being referred to as BlueLeaks, was published by a collective known as DDoSecrets and many are comparing it to WikiLeaks in terms of its scope and nature. DDoSecrets has stated that it plans to act as a publisher of leaked information while maintaining the anonymity of the hackers involved and alleges that it was not involved in the actual data exfiltration.
However, since sharing this information on Twitter (now known as X) the account appears to have been suspended:
Read more at Business Insider here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.