The international law enforcement agency has confirmed that it's investigating the incident.
The data was advertised on the BreachForums Dark Web marketplace on Friday, and it was marked as sold the same day.
The tranche purportedly includes internal emails, employee resume data, and various internal classified documents.
According to a Europol media statement, the main target of the theft is the Europol Platform for Experts, a data-sharing portal used by law enforcement to swap best practices and tips for making their jobs easier and more effective.
IntelBroker, which provided a data sample in its underground forum ad that appeared to contain sensitive employee information, claimed that the data trove also includes info heisted from the European Cybercrime Centre, the Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy, the Law Enforcement Forum, and Sirius, which is a platform for cross-border data-sharing.
Europol has not confirmed this wider claim.
This is not the first data security incident for Europol.
In March, it came to light that physical intruders broke into a secure storage room within Europol's HQ in The Hague, making off with several files containing personal information of top law enforcement executives.
This Cyber News was published on www.darkreading.com. Publication date: Mon, 13 May 2024 16:35:19 +0000