Hackers stole 7.7TB of LAPD data from LA City Attorney's systems

Hackers stole more than 7 terabytes of data related to the Los Angeles Police Department, including classified police records, from a digital storage device managed by the LA city’s attorney’s office.

 

The massive data breach which, according to the Los Angeles Times occurred in March, compromised 337,000 files related to the Los Angeles Police Department, including documents that contained disciplinary histories of officers and investigations conducted by Internal Affairs which are kept away from the public.

 

The stolen data also contained other pieces of sensitive information such as officers’ personal health information, internal departmental probes, criminal complaints and witness interviews from criminal investigations. Put together, the stolen documents amounted to 7.7 terabytes of data.

 

The Los Angeles Police Department quickly responded to reported about the massive data breach on Wednesday, stating that the breach resulted from unauthorised access to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s digital storage system.

 

"LAPD is aware of an incident within the LA City Attorney’s Office, where unauthorised individuals gained access to a digital storage system," LAPD said in a post on microblogging platform X. "The digital storage contained discovery documents from previously adjudicated settled LAPD civil investigation cases. The breach does not involve any LAPD systems or networks."

 

"We take this incident very seriously and are working with the L.A. City Attorney’s Office to gain access to the impacted files to understand the full scope of the data breach. LAPD is committed to safeguarding the sensitive personal and investigative information," the police force added.

 

With close to 9,000 police officers forming its cadre, LAPD conducts law enforcement duties in an area spanning 468 square miles and serves over 4 million residents of the city of Los Angeles in California through Central, South, West, and Valley bureaus. The bureaus are further divided into 21 geographic area stations.

 

According to Los Angeles Times, the breached data may have contained information related to live investigations, such as internal investigations into allegations of sexual assault by a woman against two police officers. 

 

A spokesperson from the City Attorney’s Office told the publication that the office learned about unauthorised access to a third-party software on 20th March. The Attorney’s office used the system to transfer discovery to opposing counsel and litigants.

 

The spokesperson, Ivor Pine, said the office immediately took steps to secure the system and launched an investigation to determine what data was accessed.

 

"The City Attorney’s Office has confirmed that no other City applications or systems were involved in this incident. The information was self contained in this application without any links or access to any department records or systems," Pine said.

 

"Our investigation is continuing to determine what information was present in the tool and we will take appropriate action to notify any affected parties based on the results of this review."