Unidentified hackers have managed to acquire the names and mobile phone numbers of all 2,800 employees of the Bern cantonal police in Switzerland, according to authorities.
The data breach occurred due to a security flaw in an application universally utilised by the police on their smartphones, a spokesperson for the police explained on Friday evening.
“There has been a leak of data, namely the names and phone numbers of every employee who owns a mobile phone,” the spokesperson added.
At present, it doesn’t appear that the data seized by the hackers have been widely disseminated, the authorities have stated.
The National Centre for Cybersecurity (NCSC) informed Bern police on 21 July of the security breach in the “MobileIron” application. Even though the issue was quickly resolved, the leaked information had already been exported.
“MobileIron”, an application extensively used in many countries, is intended to ensure employees of a company or organisation can securely connect their mobile devices to their employer’s servers.
Bern police claim to have no knowledge of who might be responsible for the data theft, but a criminal investigation has been initiated.
