Notorious Hacker IntelBroker Claims that Europol has Suffered a Data Breach

In Cybersecurity News - Original News Source is cybersecuritynews.com by Blog Writer

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The European Union’s law enforcement agency, Europol, has confirmed a security breach of its web portal but says no operational data was compromised.

The notorious hacker group IntelBroker has claimed responsibility for the hack, alleging they stole sensitive data, including classified documents.

According to IntelBroker, the breach occurred in May 2024 and impacted several Europol systems, including the Europol Platform for Experts (EPE), a knowledge-sharing portal law enforcement experts use.

The hacker claims to have accessed “For Official Use Only” (FOUO) source code, documents, and a database with the personal information of cybercrime experts.

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IntelBroker also alleges they compromised the SIRIUS platform used by judicial and law enforcement authorities from 47 countries to access electronic evidence in criminal investigations.

The group is offering to sell the allegedly stolen Europol data and is demanding payment in Monero cryptocurrency.

In a statement, Europol said they were aware of the incident and had taken initial actions but emphasized that no operational data had been compromised.

“The incident concerns a Europol Platform for Expert (EPE) closed user group,” Europol stated. “No core systems of Europol are affected and therefore, no operational data from Europol has been compromised.”

However, this is not the first security incident to hit the EU police agency. In September 2023, sensitive personnel files of Europol’s executive director Catherine De Bolle and other senior officials went missing in what was described as a “serious security and personal data breach incident”.

IntelBroker has been active since December, previously claiming to have breached and leaked data from various U.S. government agencies and a major unnamed cybersecurity company, alleged to be Zscaler.

The hacker group’s latest claim of a Europol breach is a concerning development that underscores the ongoing challenges in securing sensitive law enforcement data from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

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