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Urgent warning: 10 years of data from law enforcement agencies leaked, including personal info on cops

Posted by: | |Categories Equipment & Technology, Featured, Homeland Security, Investigations, Law and Legal
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WASHINGTON D.C. – A group calling itself the DDoS (Distributed Denial of Secrets) hacking group has leaked data from 200 police departments and other law enforcement agencies. 

The group published almost 269 GB of data reported to include official US records on how Iranian backed militias laundered money through used car sales and drug trafficking.

While DDos derives its name from Denial of Service attack, it does not appear that this hack included such an attack.  A denial of service attack crashes servers and websites with overwhelming amounts of requests, causing them to crash.

Additional reports suggest that the data also includes police and FBE reports, bulletins, photo and other classified and personal information. 

Using the code tag #BlueLeaks, the group leaked sensitive and benign data from law enforcement agencies at all levels.

On March 31, 2020, an anonymous hacker group launched a DDos attack against the Minneapolis Police department and released a video threatening to “expose your many crimes to the world.” 

The group Anonymous did not claim responsibility, but Twitter accounts affiliated with the group were among the first to tweet that it was down.

While the bulk of the data appears to be benign, there are some emails and documents containing personal data about suspects and officers.

A document offering a training course to protect the elderly against “gypsy/traveler crime” has been questioned as possibly being racist on twitter. 

The flyer is offering a course in 2015.  The internet is filled with crimes perpetrated by these transnational crime organizations.  As recent as 2019, the FBI charged 19 people in the Houston area in an email compromise scams, at yet, Twitter trolls are looking to turn this into a racist seminar.

Emails such as the following (personal information redacted) are dangerous not only to the officer mentioned but to the suspect as well:

ALCON,

***** State University Police (Lt. *****, cc’d above) received information that *********,

DOB: 5/**/***, CDL *****, was traveling from ***** to ***** State University and intended to

commit suicide by cop. ***** is receiving emergency pings for *****’s cellular phone, which

indicates that it is traveling in the direction of  ***** State University (last seen in the Central

*****, approximately 1.5-2 hours south of the ***** Area). ***** is believed to be driving a

silver 2015 Nissan Altima, CA license plate #7KZR958, and has previously sent social media

photos of a silver and black handgun. SSUP is currently coordinating with *** to locate ****

and/or his vehicle (*** is coordinating with Sgt. *** from ***). FBI has entered *** and the

vehicle into NCIC as A&D and Threat to LE. Attached are DMV photo and **** run for

Badger. Point of contact for coordination can be SSUP Lt. ***** (desk: 000-000-0000,

cell: 000-000-0000, [email protected]) and myself ([email protected],

000-000-1234). **** will continue to coordinate with **** and surrounding agencies. FBI

will attempt to identify and contact family members of *****. Please reply all with any

questions or concerns. Thank you!

 

Attacks such as these show the need to shore up server security and maintain off-line backups of information, much like financial institutions do.  It’s not a guarantee against these cyber criminals, but it could certainly help contain more serious issues down the road.

On another side, this does show us some of the craziness our law enforcement officers have to put up with on a daily basis.

Take, for instance, this lovely piece of correspondence sent to a police station in the United States:

You are a ******** lying piece of government **** you ******** criminals!

We KNOW the ****** chemtrails hiding Planet X causes the “rainbow

clouds” and we know they never existed before chemtrails you *********

criminal bastards! You should ALL be executed for treason and genocide

you ********** criminal and the evil *** shouldve been burned down

decades ago with all you evil criminal bastards inside!

We should all remember what our LEOs have to deal with on a daily basis and how they do so, professionally and calmly in just about every situation, like the situations with the two people referenced above, which were resolved peacefully and without incident.

For what it’s worth, Law Enforcement Today employees use American ID Recovery  to monitor our own personal identities.  They’ve been very good to us over the years… and we’d highly recommend you check out them or similar services if you’re concerned about your own identity.

Of course, as seen in the tweets peppered throughout this story, the radical left takes anything police departments say (or write, in this case) and turn it into something about police being racist.

Law Enforcement Today brought you more on what police have to face in regards to being called racist. This time, by their “leader.”

The war of words between the Columbus (OH) police and Mayor Andrew Ginther escalated this past week when the president of the city’s police union, Keith Ferrell, said that the city’s leadership had been absent during the last week or so of rioting and unrest in downtown Columbus.

Ferrell’s statement, during a press conference on Tuesday came days after Ginther sent a scathing email to every city employee, including every police officer in which he alleged that the Columbus Police Department is racist.

Ginther made the allegations in a press release that was emailed to all employees. The email, sent on May 29 said that he was angry about racism he said that permeates the entire country. He then zeroed in on the Columbus police.

“We know that racism exists in our city, in our neighborhoods, in the workplace and in the Columbus Division of Police,” he wrote. “Chief Quinlan has been making solid steps toward implementing plans to flush out racism and to eliminate it from the ranks. He is working to improve community relations.

“We need to hire more people of color to be police officers to reflect the diversity of our beautiful city, and we are working hard to do that. We have started a cadet program as a pipeline to recruit more women and men of color to serve. Our last police recruit classes have shown greater diversity than in the last decade.”

So, it appears that Ginther is not as much interested in hiring the most qualified candidates to be police offices, but rather wants to make sure that the department matches the racial dynamic of the city. It would seem that by imposing such quotas in hiring, and probably in promotion, the mayor is insinuating a form of racism in the hiring and/or promotion processes of the Columbus PD.

He continued:

“This isn’t enough. We can do more, and we will. Chief Quinlan is forming a chief’s council to hear directly from residents.

He formed the Police and Community Together Team (PACT) to address human trafficking with the community. HE has put in place officer wellness checks before incidents happen and has eliminated officers’ ability to use accrued leave to pay off suspensions.

“Real change is a community effort,” Ginther said in the release. “And it is hard. It takes every one of us to make change happen. And yes, it takes protests to show anger and frustration.”

A report released by the Community Safety Advisory Commission last August said that more than half of black employees at the police department had reported as having experienced some level of racism.

Ironically, the Columbus Division of Police is a CALEA accredited police agency, having initially earned that distinction in 1999. The department has achieved six re-accreditations and is due to be reaccredited this year.

One would think that as an accredited agency, Columbus would have stuff like this under control. It would come as a shock if it did not.

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In the meantime, NBC4 reported  that the union’s president, Ferrell said that he had reached out to both the office of the mayor, as well as the city council, neither of which have returned his phone calls.

“I reached out to the mayor’s office, I’ve reached out to city council,” he said.

“They have not returned our calls. In an attempt to deescalate this situation in an attempt to work with city officials like we always agree to do, and we have not heard back.”

 

He noted that the lack of communication between all the stakeholders will hold up progress on making any needed changes.

“I don’t know how we move forward in this community with leadership that won’t reach out to the other side to help out,” Ferrell said.

Ferrell said that the union had agreed to some changes requested by the city, including the use of police body cameras, which he said has shown that claims of racism by officers are unfounded.

“We will say that the body camera has shown that while the mayor and other elected officials have painted this department with being stricken with racism, those body cameras’ footage does not show that, complaints do not show that.”

While noting that nobody is perfect, he said that the department had opened dialogue with city leaders in order to maintain a communications channel.

He also said that the Columbus police are one of the best trained units in the country, and that officers undergo training on implicit bias, while also noting that Ginther had made that requirement and he finds it puzzling that he now insists that there is a systemic racism problem within the department.

Ferrell also complained that while Ginther and Quinlan suggested that Columbus officers “needed to handle peaceful protesters and rioters differently,” they didn’t offer any suggestions on how to carry that out.

“We were criticized for using tear gas or gas down the street,” Ferrell said. “Couldn’t we just go in and arrest? Let me tell you, folks. We are trained to use as little force as possible to complete the mission. OK.

I go into a crowd and put my hands on people, what happens? It creates a bigger problem. It puts those people at risk, it puts people around that person at risk and it puts my officers at risk.”

He continued that Ginther was not only failing to stand up for police officers in the city, but he was also failing to stand up for the business community.

“We hear a lot of talk, but we’re not seeing it,” he said.

“I would like to see them stand up strongly and discourage violence against police,” Ferrell said.

“We’ve heard it her and there, but Mayor de Blasio, who is not friends with the FOP or the police union there in New York, made a very strong statement today, and I don’t want to wait until an officer gets killed here, which we’re seeing, or shot for someone to jump in and make a statement.

The time is now and it’s not just about officers. It’s about the businesses and the community and the good citizens of this community that deserve better, because they’re going to get hurt too.”

He also noted the officers in the department do support peaceful protest.

“I talked to them in the streets last night. I stood out on Broad Street and talked to them, and I’ll share the story they told me. They were peaceful. I said, ‘Hey, we’ll stand with you. We want your voice to be heard even if it’s about us. That’s your right and we all believe in that.’”

He also related a story about a protester who had one of the rioters stick a gun in their face, who noted they were upset because they wanted their voices heard but they were being drowned out by those who were choosing to riot.

“And every peaceful protester in the city of Columbus should be upset because their voices should be heard and shouldn’t be shut down because people choose to riot and destroy this town that businesses have built.”

The police department is facing allegations of aggressive policing after officers were forced to use tear gas and pepper spray to quell the rioting. Ginther has asked people to send evidence of excessive force to a special email address for civilian review.

Ferrell said that he welcomes any investigations, while saying at the same time they needed to be fair and impartial. He also said that all “criminal acts that have been committed against my officers” also needed to be looked at by Ginther’s office.

Ferrell noted that the people who were hit with pepper spray were those who turned from protesting into civil unrest and rioting.

“I would say more than likely, at that point, they’re not protesters, and if they’re the good protesters, it’s unfortunate,” Ferrell said.

“The rioters have ruined it, and if at some point, we have to enforce the law to clear the streets and not allow vandalism and damage and enforce the mayor’s signed order for the curfew…yes, absolutely, pepper spray is used at times. When we get on the loudspeaker and say it’s time to disperse, it has become an illegal function due to the bad apples and it’s time to go.”

Columbus is just one of many cities across the country where elected officials seem to be siding with those who intend on destroying their cities as opposed to those who are empowered with protecting them.

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About The Author

Hillary is a veteran of the United States Air Force and the Chaplain at VFW Post 1670 and American Legion Post 33. And the Public Relations Director for VFW Post 1670. She is the former Webmaster and Publicity Director for the NH State VFW. She is also actively involved in New Hampshire Politics, supporting candidates who support our first responders and veterans.

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