Netherlands: “State actor” blamed for massive attack on Dutch police

An unnamed “state actor” was most likely behind the hacking of thousands of Dutch police contact details last week, the country's justice minister said on Wednesday.

David van Weel revealed the data leak on Friday, which, according to Dutch media, contained information on almost all 65,000 police officers in the Netherlands.

“The intelligence and security services consider it very likely that a state actor is responsible for the hack,” Van Weel said in a letter to parliament.

He did not name a specific country.

News of the stolen data – which Van Weel said included “names, email addresses, phone numbers and, in some cases, personal information” – caused great uproar among police personnel.

“I can imagine that police officers are concerned about the possible consequences of the hack,” Van Weel said.