Russia hacked Dutch police systems in 2017: report

In 2017 Dutch intelligence service AIVD discovered that Russian hackers had broken into the Dutch police systems, the Vokskrant reported based on anonymous sources. The police only noticed the hack after the AIVD tipped them and the discovery caused "major panic", according to the newspaper.

Hacker group Cozy Bear, which has ties to the Russian security service, broke into the police systems through a Police Academy server, the newspaper's sources said. The hack caused panic not only because the police systems turned out to be poorly secured, but also because the police were working on the criminal investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 at the time.

Whether and which data was stolen, is not clear, insiders said to the Volkskrant. The police network is very large and complex, and it was decided to get the hackers out as quickly as possible, rather than pinpointing exactly where they were. "There were a lot of question marks," the newspaper's source said. "How long had they been inside? Was this the first time? Had they already siphoned off data? That wasn't clear."

Both the AIVD and police refused to respond to the Volkskrant's questions about the hack.

Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014. All 298 people on board were killed, including 196 Dutch people. Multiple investigations showed that MH17 was shot down with a BUK missile system from the 53rd Anti-aircraft Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, fired from a field in eastern Ukraine that was in the hands of pro-Russian separatists at the time. 

The substantive handling of the criminal trial against the first four men suspected of involvement in the downing, three Russians and a Ukrainian, started at the high security court at Schiphol on Monday.