A hack at ODIN Intelligence exposes an enormous trove of police raid information • TechCrunch

Detailed tactical plans for imminent police raids, confidential police stories with descriptions of alleged crimes and suspects, and a forensic extraction report detailing the contents of a suspect’s cellphone. These are among the information in an enormous cache of knowledge taken from the inner 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 stated in message left on ODIN’s web site that it hacked the corporate after its founder and chief government 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 knowledge about upcoming police operations to the open net.

The hackers additionally revealed the corporate’s Amazon Internet Providers personal keys for accessing its cloud-stored knowledge and claimed to have “shredded” the corporate’s knowledge and backups however not earlier than exfiltrating gigabytes of knowledge from ODIN’s methods.

ODIN develops and supplies apps, like SweepWizard, to police departments throughout the US. The corporate additionally builds applied sciences that permit authorities to remotely monitor convicted intercourse offenders. However ODIN additionally drew criticism final yr for providing authorities a facial recognition system for figuring out homeless individuals and utilizing degrading language in its advertising and marketing.

ODIN’s McCauley didn’t reply to a number of emails requesting remark previous to publication however confirmed the hack in a knowledge breach disclosure filed with the California lawyer normal’s workplace.

The breach not solely exposes huge quantities of ODIN’s personal inner knowledge but additionally gigabytes of confidential legislation enforcement knowledge uploaded by ODIN’s police division prospects. The breach raises questions on ODIN’s cybersecurity but additionally the safety and privateness of the hundreds of individuals — together with victims of crime and suspects not charged with any offense — whose private data was uncovered.

The cache of hacked ODIN knowledge was supplied to DDoSecrets, a nonprofit transparency collective that indexes leaked datasets within the public curiosity, comparable to 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 knowledge within the ODIN cache.

Little is understood in regards to the hack or the intruders chargeable for the breach. Greatest advised TechCrunch that the supply of the breach is a bunch referred to as “All Cyber-Cops Are Bastards,” a phrase it referenced within the defacement message.

TechCrunch reviewed the info, which not solely contains the corporate’s supply code and inner database but additionally hundreds of police information. Not one of the knowledge 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 information included dozens of folders with full tactical plans of upcoming raids, alongside suspect mugshots, their fingerprints and biometric descriptions and different private data, together with intelligence on people who may be 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 outdoors of the police division.

Among the information have been labeled as check 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 check of ODIN’s front-facing methods however acknowledged the raid’s goal was to “discover a home to dwell in.”

The leaked cache of ODIN knowledge 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 data.

The information additionally accommodates a considerable amount of private details about people, together with the surveillance methods that police use to determine or observe them. TechCrunch discovered a number of screenshots exhibiting individuals’s faces matched towards a facial recognition engine referred to as AFR Engine, an organization that gives face-matching expertise to police departments. One photograph seems to indicate an officer forcibly holding an individual’s head in entrance of one other officer’s cellphone digital camera.

Different information present police utilizing automated license plate readers, referred to as ANPR, which may determine the place a suspect drove in current days. One other doc contained the total contents — together with textual content messages and pictures — of a convicted offender’s cellphone, whose contents have been extracted by a forensic extraction instrument throughout a compliance verify whereas the offender was on probation. One folder contained audio recordings of police interactions, some the place officers are heard utilizing pressure.

TechCrunch contacted a number of U.S. police departments whose information have been discovered within the stolen knowledge. 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 extra in regards to the ODIN Intelligence breach, get in contact with the safety desk on Sign and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849 or [email protected] by e-mail.