UK’s Police National Legal Database Reveals Data Breach

A data breach of the Police National Legal Database (PNLD) was identified on July 26 and publicly disclosed August 3; names, organizations and work email addresses (about 135,000 records, ~1.9GB according to the claimant) for UK police and justice personnel were published on the dark web. The extortion group ExfilSquad claims responsibility and leaked sample data to pressure payment; PNLD reports no evidence of compromised passwords but warns of increased risk of targeted spear-phishing and social engineering.