IT experts: National police still at risk from hackers

Report into 2012 security breach reveals fundamental changes not made

Three years after Denmark’s most devastating hacker attack, during which the national police’s IT security was breached and hackers stole millions of confidential files over the course of several months, the IT interest organisation IT-Politisk Forening (IT-Pol) has warned the same thing could happen again, DR reports.

READ MORE: Police were warned during hacker attack

Jesper Lund, the head of IT-Pol, issued the warning following the publication of a report by the data protection agency Datatilsynet into the 2012 attack.

Still at risk
Datatilsynet’s decision includes pointed criticism of Rigspolitiet and questions why confidential data hasn’t been moved from a server with internet access, prompting Lund to suspect the step hasn’t been taken.

“That’s how I read Datatilsynet’s report,” he said.

“It sounds as though they have made some small changes, but it doesn’t sound like they have implemented fundamental robustness against hacker attacks.”

According to Lund, this means that a repeat of the 2012 attack, which saw a Swedish hacker gain access to the Europe-wide Schengen register through Rigspolitiet’s IT system, could occur.

“Yes, if the system still runs the way it is described in Datatilsynet’s report, then it could happen again – definitely.”