A disturbing report has just come out from the Associated Press that reveals how the names and addresses of police officers and their families are being doxxed online so that they can be targeted:
Personal information of police officers in departments nationwide is being leaked online amid tense interactions at demonstrations across the U.S. over the police custody death of George Floyd and others, according to an unclassified intelligence document from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, obtained by The Associated Press.
The document warns that the effort, known as “doxxing,” could lead to attacks by “violent opportunists or domestic violent extremists” or could prevent law enforcement officials from carrying out their duties.
Multiple high-ranking police officials in a number of cities, including Washington, Atlanta, Boston and New York have had their personal information shared on social media, including their home addresses, email addresses and phone numbers, the report warns.
“At least one of the police commissioners was targeted for his alleged support of the use of tear gas to disperse protests,” it says.
It’s not just names and addresses that’s being leaked…
Federal officials also identified posts that include specific personal information of several law enforcement officers in Kentucky and their family members and included a link to a website that contained their full names, the names of their family members, home addresses, specific information about the vehicles they drive and online account login information, the report says.
The personal information of another officer from San Jose, California, and his family was also posted online in a post that called for others to “do with this information what you will,” the report said.
It is not illegal to post the personal information of law enforcement officers online, though many social media companies specifically prohibit its sharing as part of their terms of service.
The report warns that some of the information may be coming from officers’ compromised email and other accounts, but some of the information may be from publicly available databases based on public records and social media sites.
Officers are being encouraged to increase their security settings on their accounts, like using multi-factor email authentication and strong passwords. The report also suggests avoid taking online quizzes or games that elicit personal information, to be wary of suspicious emails and not to post phone numbers online.
The report says the Department of Homeland security has “medium confidence that cyber actors will possibly continue to target law enforcement officers” with doxxing tactics “to undermine law enforcement’s response to ongoing lawful protests.”
This is horrible. Not only do these officers need to beef up the security of their email accounts, but also of their homes to keep their families safe. Because you know there are crazed people who will act on this information.
And maybe, just maybe, instead of censoring the president’s tweets, Twitter and other social media companies should dedicate a team to delete these tweets and ban the accounts that post this kind of personal information.