Dutch police blame ‘state actor’ for recent data breach

Avatar

Dutch national police have deemed it “very likely” that a state-sponsored threat actor was behind a large-scale data breach discovered last week.

During the attack, unidentified hackers stole “work-related contact details,” including names, email addresses, phone numbers and private information from some of the agency’s 65,000 officers. 

In a statement released earlier this week, the police said local intelligence services had informed them that “another country or perpetrators acting on behalf of another country” could be responsible for the attack.

Few details have been revealed about the incident and its impact. 

“In order not to make the perpetrators any wiser and not to harm the investigation, no further information can be shared at this time,” the police said, adding that they have “implemented strong security measures” in response to the breach.

“Police officers are working day and night to prevent or counter new cyber threats and to track down the perpetrators.”

Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel said last week that the attack did not compromise the police’s “private data and research data.” He did not specify how the breach could affect officers working undercover.

A police spokesperson told local media that the attack caused “great concern” among employees, who were left wondering what specific data was involved and whether more information had been stolen.

The Dutch Police Union called the attack a “nightmare,” emphasizing that the need for strong data protection within the police force has become painfully clear.

While the investigation into the incident is ongoing, the police have advised their employees to be cautious about suspicious apps, potential phishing emails, and issues with logging into their devices.

News BriefsNewsNation-statePrivacy
Get more insights with the

Recorded Future

Intelligence Cloud.

Learn more.

No previous article

No new articles

Daryna Antoniuk

is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.

 

Total
0
Shares
Previous Post

White House official says insurance companies must stop funding ransomware payments

Next Post

Recently spotted Trinity ransomware spurs federal warning to healthcare industry

Related Posts

Europol Arrests Five SmokeLoader Clients Linked by Seized Database Evidence

Law enforcement authorities have announced that they tracked down the customers of the SmokeLoader malware and detained at least five individuals. "In a coordinated series of actions, customers of the Smokeloader pay-per-install botnet, operated by the actor known as 'Superstar,' faced consequences such as arrests, house searches, arrest warrants or 'knock and talks,'" Europol said in a
Avatar
Read More

Meta Disrupts Influence Ops Targeting Romania, Azerbaijan, and Taiwan with Fake Personas

Meta on Thursday revealed that it disrupted three covert influence operations originating from Iran, China, and Romania during the first quarter of 2025. "We detected and removed these campaigns before they were able to build authentic audiences on our apps," the social media giant said in its quarterly Adversarial Threat Report. This included a network of 658 accounts on Facebook, 14 Pages, and
Avatar
Read More