Dozens of confidential investigative documents were findable via search engines

Dozens of confidential documents from the criminal investigation department could be found via search engines because the information was placed on an unsecured website, NRC Handelsblad reported. This would involve police investigations into murder cases, robberies, criminal organizations and jihad suspects.

Police confirmed the security flaw and took the documents offline. According to NRC Handelsblad, the files were stored on a server on which a website of an accountant ran. A relative of the accountant and also a system administrator at the police is said to have placed the sensitive documents on an unsecured part of this site. By entering the name of suspects into search engines such as Google, the files could be found and retrieved.

The documents described criminal cases in which suspects were under police observation, including a group of jihadists who may want to travel to Syria. A leader of a criminal organization would also be followed by, among others, the criminal investigation department. The documents contained information that came from the Criminal Intelligence Unit. This department of the police often works with informants and does its work in silence.

In addition to the names of suspects observed, the files also contained names and addresses of detectives and public prosecutors. According to NRC Handelsblad, the Public Prosecution Service is currently checking whether the security leak may have consequences for ongoing investigations. The National Bureau of Investigation has also launched an investigation into the incident, which is trying, among other things, to find out who requested the documents. The responsible system administrator has been made inactive.