Europol confidential documents were displayed online when an employee of the service took them with him on a USB that he opened with the computer of his home.
The Dutch Zembla reveals that the leak was not caused by external sources but by a Europol employee who violated the policy of the service and took confidential data with him.
So more than 700 classified pages from Europol's servers are currently circulating on Internet and include hundreds of names and phone numbers belonging to individuals involved in terrorist investigations.
According to Ars, they are also included information for various attacks, like the one that happened in Madrid, but also for cases that have not been made public.
The Dutch source claims that all files were left without encryption σε μια συσκευή αποθήκευσης συνδεδεμένη σε έναν υπολογιστή χωρίς κωδικό πρόσβασης που ήταν συνδεδεμένος στο Internet.
Europol confirmed the leak, and said it was caused by a human error. According to the service, an internal investigation has already begun to reveal what happened exactly.
"The former employee, who is an experienced police officer from a national authority, obtained Europol data on a private storage device while still working in Europol clearly violating his service policy," Europol spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth said. .
"A security investigation into this case is already underway, in coordination with the relevant authorities at national level."
At present, it is not yet known whether and how many people were able to access these documents, but given the confidential nature of the leaked information, it is very clear that similar leaks should be prevented in the future.
Europol is known for strict internal security, but no agency can be safes from human errors like this.
