Met Police Sounds Alarm Over Massive Security Breach: Thousands of Officersâ Details at Risk
By Eirian Jane Prosser
Updated: 17:51 EDT, 26 August 2023
The Met Police just dropped a bombshell: cyber crooks might have snatched the lowdown on a boatload of officers, all thanks to a colossal breach in their security. Get this: their warrant card supplier got hacked.
Yeah, you heard that right. All 47,000 folks on the force got hit with a warning, a real wake-up call. Itâs like this â their mugshots, names, and ranks might be swiped by these digital desperados who cracked into the IT systems of some contractor that prints their IDs.
But wait, thereâs more. Those sneaky crooks couldâve also laid their grubby paws on ID numbers and vetting levels. Thatâs like a goldmine for them.
The big shots at the National Crime Agency got wind of this mess too. Theyâre saying itâs not just childâs play â terrorists and the big-league gangs could be rubbing their hands together, cooking up some nasty schemes with the intel they filched.
Now, picture this: Ex-Met commander John OâConnor is fuming. Heâs spitting fire over this latest blunder. âUtterly outrageous,â he spits, like a man whoâs seen too much. Heâs got a point though. He spills to The Sun, âYou take these details, whip up a fake warrant card, and bam â youâre in. Right into a police station or some super-secure spot.â
And it gets worse. Those candid shots of undercover officers, the ones sweating it out on surveillance or in high-stakes gigs like counter-terrorism â yep, those pics could end up in the wrong mitts. Now thatâs a serious clusterf*.
But hey, whoâs to blame? OâConnorâs throwing shade at the company that let this happen. Heâs raising hell about their lousy IT security. Makes you wonder how these folks can be so careless when it comes to keeping things locked up tight.
Word is, the bigwigs at the Met Police are sending out SOS messages to the troops. Theyâre telling them to keep their eyes peeled. Like, âStay frosty, folks â weâre knee-deep in the muck, trying to wrap our heads around how deep this breach goes.â
Nobody knows for sure what these hackers were gunning for. Were they after the good cops and the suits? Or were they just shaking down the printing company for a ransom? The answerâs still in the wind.
A Met Police rep spills the beans: âWe got word that some shady characters hacked into a supplierâs IT system. Weâre on their tail, trying to suss out if our data got messed with. Names, ranks, mugshots, vetting numbers, and pay digits â yeah, thatâs on the line. But donât fret, they didnât get their mitts on personal junk like where we live or our bank digits.â
Some damage controlâs going down though. The Metâs swinging into action â theyâre giving the scoop to the National Crime Agency. And the bigwigs at the Information Commissionerâs Office â theyâre watching from the shadows too.
Stay tuned. Thereâs more to come.
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