Hacker swipes personal deets of 20,000 peeps from under Los Angeles Police Dept's nose

Around 20,000 Los Angeles Police Department job-seekers and officers have had their personal data nicked, the force has confirmed. A total of 17,500 applicants to the force and 2,500 serving officers had their names, dates of birth, parts of their social security numbers, and the email addresses and passwords associated with …

[Doctor Syntax]

"Data security is paramount at..."

Prefacing any statement with something of this pattern this is tantamount to declaring "This statement is bollox". The media should just make it clear that it won't even be published and ask for meaningful comments. At the very least it would cause the PR industry to write some new boilerplate for the drones.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. There's also the fact that data security is not, in fact, paramount. It may be important, they may even consider it a part of their mission. But what is paramount is investigating crime because it's a police department and that is the reason police departments exist. If it were an infosec company, data security would be paramount.

[Tony W]

Paramount

It is an organisation.

Therefore what is paramount is, firstly, the good of the person in charge.

Secondly, the good of the organisation.

Thirdly, if the organisation is honest, its stated aims.

This has been demonstrated time and again with charities, churches etc. No organisation is so moral that it doesn't need careful oversight.

[BenjaminHare]

Diversity success

"How was she able to exfiltrate so many records without triggering any alerts?"

This quote represents a breakthrough in diversity: hackers are no longer automatically assumed to possess a plonker. Huzzah for social progress.

[Dan 55]

Re: Diversity success

I see the third person plural to represent someone of unknown gender still hasn't made it across the pond. Maybe in another 100 years.

[[e-mail]]

Re: Diversity success

I figured that meant they already knew who did it*, but I don't recall hearing "she" used as a third person plural before - isn't 'she' singular? (Or is that what you meant?) Maybe the speaker thought saying "they" might panic people into believing there was more than one hacker?

*I was going to say "had already fingered the culprit" but that might not look too good to anyone not familiar with that expression...

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's hope that none of the 2,500 officers were working undercover!

I don't think credit monitoring would be of much help to an undercover agent embedded in a criminal gang or drug cartel after their true identity got exposed.

Expect a lot more of this if the AG gets his wish of mandatory backdoors in encryption.

[Chairman of the Bored]

Turnabout?

Well, if the AG gets his way and becomes our back door man I fully expect him to get doxed. Right off the bat. And then I can say, "Warning! Prosecutors will be violated"

[big_D]

That was my first thought as well. Exposing details of undercover officers to organized crime would be a lot more harmful that pure identity theft.

[sanmigueelbeer]

HAHAHAHAHAHA ... The police got hacked ... HAHAHAHAHA ... Oh wait, you're serious?

If the Police got hacked, who are they going to call?

Operator: You've called 911, how can I help?

Caller: I want to report that our network has been hacked.

Operator: Can I have your name, please?

Caller: Police Commissioner Eric Lassard

[FrogsAndChips]

Missing question

How in 2019 can organizations still store passwords instead of hashing them?

"Thycotic (a US infosec outfit, not a psychopath with a lisp)": Gareth, you owe me a keyboard.

[Drew Scriver]

Good thing the authorities are on top of security, with the plans to force manufacturers to implement back doors in consumer gear for them to use and all.