Detailed tactical plans for imminent police raids, confidential police studies with descriptions of alleged crimes and suspects, and a forensic extraction report detailing the contents of a suspect’s telephone. These are a number of the recordsdata in an enormous cache of knowledge taken from the interior servers of ODIN Intelligence, a tech firm that gives apps and providers to police departments, following a hack and defacement of its web site over the weekend.
The group behind the breach mentioned in message left on ODIN’s web site that it hacked the corporate after its founder and chief govt Erik McCauley dismissed a report by Wired, which found the corporate’s flagship app SweepWizard, utilized by police to coordinate and plan multi-agency raids, was insecure and spilling delicate information about upcoming police operations to the open net.
The hackers additionally revealed the corporate’s Amazon Internet Companies non-public keys for accessing its cloud-stored information and claimed to have “shredded” the corporate’s information and backups however not earlier than exfiltrating gigabytes of knowledge from ODIN’s methods.
ODIN develops and gives apps, like SweepWizard, to police departments throughout america. The corporate additionally builds applied sciences that enable authorities to remotely monitor convicted intercourse offenders. However ODIN additionally drew criticism final 12 months for providing authorities a facial recognition system for figuring out homeless individuals and utilizing degrading language in its advertising.
ODIN’s McCauley didn’t reply to a number of emails requesting remark previous to publication however confirmed the hack in an information breach disclosure filed with the California lawyer common’s workplace.
The breach not solely exposes huge quantities of ODIN’s personal inside information but in addition gigabytes of confidential legislation enforcement information uploaded by ODIN’s police division clients. The breach raises questions on ODIN’s cybersecurity but in addition the safety and privateness of the hundreds of individuals — together with victims of crime and suspects not charged with any offense — whose private info was uncovered.
The cache of hacked ODIN information was supplied to DDoSecrets, a nonprofit transparency collective that indexes leaked datasets within the public curiosity, reminiscent of caches from police departments, authorities companies, legislation corporations and militia teams. DDoSecrets co-founder Emma Greatest advised TechCrunch that the collective has restricted the distribution of the cache to journalists and researchers given the huge quantity of personally identifiable information within the ODIN cache.
Little is understood concerning the hack or the intruders chargeable for the breach. Greatest advised TechCrunch that the supply of the breach is a bunch known as “All Cyber-Cops Are Bastards,” a phrase it referenced within the defacement message.
TechCrunch reviewed the information, which not solely consists of the corporate’s supply code and inside database but in addition hundreds of police recordsdata. Not one of the information seems encrypted.
A police doc, redacted by TechCrunch, with full particulars of an upcoming raid uncovered by the breach. Picture Credit score: TechCrunch (screenshot)
The info included dozens of folders with full tactical plans of upcoming raids, alongside suspect mugshots, their fingerprints and biometric descriptions and different private info, together with intelligence on people who is perhaps current on the time of the raid, like kids, cohabitants and roommates, a few of whom described as having “no crim[inal] historical past.” Most of the paperwork have been labeled as “confidential legislation enforcement solely” and “managed doc” not for disclosure exterior of the police division.
Among the recordsdata have been labeled as take a look at paperwork and used pretend officer names like “Superman” and “Captain America.” However ODIN additionally used actual world identities, like Hollywood actors, who’re unlikely to have consented to their names getting used. One doc titled “Fresno Home Search” bore no markings to counsel the doc was a take a look at of ODIN’s front-facing methods however said the raid’s goal was to “discover a home to dwell in.”
The leaked cache of ODIN information additionally contained its system for monitoring intercourse offenders, which permits police and parole officers to register, supervise and monitor convicted criminals. The cache contained greater than a thousand paperwork regarding convicted intercourse offenders who’re required to register with the state of California, together with their names, residence addresses (if not incarcerated) and different private info.
The info additionally accommodates a considerable amount of private details about people, together with the surveillance strategies that police use to establish or monitor them. TechCrunch discovered a number of screenshots displaying individuals’s faces matched in opposition to a facial recognition engine known as AFR Engine, an organization that gives face-matching know-how to police departments. One photograph seems to indicate an officer forcibly holding an individual’s head in entrance of one other officer’s telephone digicam.
Different recordsdata present police utilizing automated license plate readers, often called ANPR, which may establish the place a suspect drove in latest days. One other doc contained the complete contents — together with textual content messages and images — of a convicted offender’s telephone, whose contents have been extracted by a forensic extraction instrument throughout a compliance examine whereas the offender was on probation. One folder contained audio recordings of police interactions, some the place officers are heard utilizing power.
TechCrunch contacted a number of U.S. police departments whose recordsdata have been discovered within the stolen information. None responded to our requests for remark.
ODIN’s web site, which went offline a short while after it was defaced, stays inaccessible as of Thursday.
If you realize extra concerning the ODIN Intelligence breach, get in contact with the safety desk on Sign and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849 or zack.whittaker@techcrunch.com by electronic mail.
