Her confidential documents Europol εκτέθηκαν online όταν ένας υπάλληλος της serviceHe took them with him on a USB that he opened with his home computer.
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 the internetnetwork and include hundreds of names and phone numbers belonging to individuals involved in terrorist investigations.
According to Ars, it also includes information on various attacks, such as that in Madrid, but also on cases that have not been made public.
The Dutch source claims that all the archives were left unencrypted on a storage device attached to a passwordless computer connected to the 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 research security regarding this case is already underway, in coordination with the relevant authorities at the 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 rigorous internal security, but no service can be safe from human mistakes like this.