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 leakage was not caused by external sources, but by a Europol employee who violated the agency's policy 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, it also includes information on 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 unencrypted on a storage device connected to a non-password computer that was connected to the Internet.
Europol confirmed the leak, saying it was caused by human error. According to the service, an internal one has already started research which will reveal exactly what happened.
"Ο πρώην υπάλληλος, ο οποίος είναι ένας έμπειρος αστυνομικός από μια εθνική αρχή, πήρε δεδομένα της Europol σε μια συσκευή για ιδιωτική αποθεματοποίηση, ενώ εξακολουθούσε να εργάζεται στην Europol παραβιάζοντας σαφώς την πολιτική της υπηρεσίας," δήλωσε ο εκπρόσωπος της Εuropol Jan Op Gen Oorth.
"Μια έρευνα ασφαλείας σχετικά με την υπόθεση αυτή βρίσκεται ήδη σε εξέλιξη, σε συντονισμό με τις αντίστοιχες αρχές σε εθνικό επίπεδο."
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.
