Cybercriminals allegedly stole a large amount of confidential internal documents from the Los Angeles Police Department and leaked the data online.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the stolen data includes police personnel files, internal affairs investigations, unredacted criminal complaints and discovery documents that may contain personal information such as witness names and medical data.
Emma Best, founder of the transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets, which hosts the data, said in an online post that the extortion organization World Leaks was behind the data breach.
Best said he was able to see some of the leaked data when it was posted and later removed on the organization's leaked website, which publishes leaked information in an attempt to pressure victims into paying ransoms.
It is unclear why the data is no longer posted on the World Leaks website.
In a public statement, the Los Angeles Police Department said it was investigating the breach and said the breach did not involve LAPD systems or networks, but rather affected “digital storage systems” belonging to the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.
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“We are working with the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office to gain access to the affected files to understand the full extent of the data breach,” the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.
According to the Los Angeles Times, most police records are considered private under California law. The newspaper said that if the leak was proven to be genuine, it would be a “stunning breach of police data” as police records are rarely disclosed or made public.
The breach reportedly exposed 7.7 terabytes of data and over 337,000 files.
Spokespeople for the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles City Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's requests for comment. The hackers could not be reached for comment.
World Leaks began operations in January 2025 as an apparent rebranding of the group formerly known as Hunters International. Since then, the group has compromised organizations across multiple industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and more.
According to cybersecurity firm Halcyon, the hackers have “demonstrated their capabilities against defense contractors and Fortune 500 companies.”