By Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) – A hacker says they have broken into a U.S. platform for searching law enforcement hotline messages and compromised more than 8 million confidential tips.
In a statement posted online, the hacker – who used the name “Internet Yiff Machine” – said they had broken into tip intelligence platform P3 Global Intel, an arm of safety company Navigate360, and stolen 93 gigabytes of data.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. P3 did not respond to repeated comment requests. On its website, Navigate360 described itself as the “leading provider of innovative tips and leads solutions” for law enforcement, federal agencies, the military, and school safety initiatives. Yiff Machine, in their statement, used a profane anti-police slogan and warned the public, “Don’t do the dirty work for the pigs.”
In an email, the hacker said they took over one of P3’s customer accounts via social engineering and then exploited a vulnerability to grab data.
Reuters could not immediately verify Yiff Machine’s claims, but the website Straight Arrow News, which first reported the breach, said it had corroborated the authenticity of some of the material by contacting tipsters whose details appeared in the data. The transparency website Distributed Denial of Secrets – which archives material from hacks and leaks – said it too had received a copy of the data and would make it available to “established journalists and researchers.”
In a statement, the site’s founder, Emma Best, said the data “provides excruciating detail” on a tip collection system that “seeks to make everyone an informant.”
(Reporting by Raphael SatterEditing by Rod Nickel)
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