Names and contact details of all Dutch police officers stolen in hack

The work-related contact details of all police officers were stolen during a cyberattack, Justice and Security Minister David van Weel confirmed on Friday. “Apart from the names of police officers, this does not involve private data or investigative data,” the minister wrote in a letter to Parliament.

It concerns a hack of the account of one police officer, said a spokesperson for police management. The police have reported the hack to the Dutch Data Protection Authority. They are currently investigating the cause and consequences of the incident.

Chief of Police Janny Knol informed the minister about this on Thursday. Police officers have since been informed of the incident. After the regular weekly Cabinet meeting, Van Weel clarified that the email addresses, names and job titles of the “entire organization” were leaked.

The spokesperson for the police management could not confirm this independently of the minister, but said that it does concern “many” employees in the broad sense, including janitors and those working at reception desks. She also said that it is too early to reveal anything about the impact of the hack.

“There are certain groups that we are now looking at with special attention, including people who work undercover,” said Van Weel. He did not want to elaborate further “for security reasons.” The minister also could not say how this could happen.

The minister said he cannot yet disclose more about the incident and promises to inform Parliament - confidentially or otherwise - when he knows more. The spokesperson for the police force management said that measures have already been taken in response to the incident, but for security reasons would not disclose what the measures are.

At the end of 2022, the police had almost 64,000 full-time positions, according to the department’s annual report. This concerns both officers and employees with other job responsibilities.

“This is a nightmare,” said Nine Kooiman from Dutch police labor union NPB. “The most important thing now is to shield data, protect employees and trace the source. The need to get the police’s data in order is painfully clear,” she wrote on X.

Ramon Meijerink, acting chair of another police union, ACP, called it “worrying that police officers’ data has been stolen after a hack at the police. The safety of employees is now central, and this will have to be thoroughly investigated.”