Foreign hackers hacked the database of the largest US police union

According to the Motherboard edition, at the end of last week, unknown attackers hacked into the database of the largest association of US police officers called the Fraternal Order of Police (POS), which brings together more than 325 thousand law enforcement officers. As a result, the network got personal data and addresses of union members, as well as documents about its activities - for example, financial information and agreements with the city administrations of the United States on the protection of order.

FOP President Chuck Canterbury reported on Facebook that the attack was organized by intruders outside the US - FOP-hired security specialists were able to detect suspicious data exchanges with IP addresses in the UK. According to the union leader, the attackers managed to “slip the system with a fake encryption key, which it should not have accepted, but accepted because of program errors”.
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In total, hackers managed to steal 2.5 gigabytes of data, according to The Guardian, the FBI has already joined the investigation of the incident.

FOP system administrator PJ Haley told reporters that some of the documents that had “leaked” to the network were in the public domain before. However, Canterbury, in a conversation with the media, confirmed the leakage of personal data of some union members. In addition, hackers managed to gain access to a closed FOP forum where members of the organization discussed various topics, from the need for tougher measures against illegal migrants to criticism of the policies of the US president.

According to the blogger named Ctulhu, who published a dump of the stolen data, the information was provided to him by a hacker who wished to remain anonymous. He motivated the attack by a “widening chasm between police and US citizens”.

Hacking the largest US trade union is not the first attack on the law enforcement agencies of this country. So in early 2016, it became known that the victim of hackers was the head of US National Intelligence, James Klepper, who then managed to get access to his e-mail, find out the address of a high-ranking intelligence officer and take control of some IT systems at his home (for example, a telephone exchange).