Overview
- LAPD said it is investigating a data leak that it traced to a digital storage system run by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, not to LAPD networks.
- Reports describe 7.7 terabytes of data across more than 337,000 files that include personnel records, internal affairs investigations, and discovery materials with witness names and medical details.
- Portions of the files began appearing on social media, with the police‑accountability account @WhosTheCop sharing a sample after a security researcher first flagged the breach in a post that was later removed.
- Distributed Denial of Secrets is hosting the data, and its founder Emma Best attributed the breach to the extortion group World Leaks after seeing the cache posted and then taken down on the gang’s site.
- Officials have not detailed the scope of who is affected or whether a ransom was sought, and California privacy rules for police records suggest possible fallout for court cases and the safety of officers and witnesses.