Millions of UK Public and Police Details Exposed in Cyber-Attack

A significant cyber-attack has compromised over 740,000 pieces of data from UK government and police systems. The Department for Education's (DfE) help-desk portal saw approximately 600,000 lines of data stolen, including parent and staff contact details. A smaller data package was also taken from the DfE's Turing portal.

Furthermore, the police national legal database (PNLD) was breached, with hackers claiming to have taken 135,000 records containing names, job roles, and work emails of police officers and criminal justice personnel. Some public members' contact details from the 'Ask the Police' service were also accessed.

The cybercriminal group ExfilSquad has claimed responsibility for the attack and is demanding an unspecified payment from the DfE and PNLD. They have posted data samples online as leverage, threatening to release all stolen information if their demands are not met. Cybersecurity firm Sophos has indicated the samples appear legitimate.

Authorities are working with the National Cyber Security Centre and National Crime Agency. The DfE stated that only customer service contact details were accessed and that swift action was taken to contain the incident. The PNLD breach is not considered highly serious, though password reuse by officers remains a concern.