Hackers stole and published secret documents of the US police

The hacker group World Leaks has stolen a large array of confidential internal documents of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and published them on the Internet, the Los Angeles Times reports. The stolen materials include personal files of police officers and investigation documents containing unredacted complaints, names of witnesses, and medical data.

The leak covers 7.7 TB of information and more than 337 thousand files. Emma Best, the founder of the transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets, said she had reviewed some of the published data before it was removed from the attackers' website. The reasons for the removal of materials from World Leaks remain unknown.

The Los Angeles Police Department has launched an investigation into the incident and emphasized that the LAPD’s own systems and networks were not affected. Instead, the leak affected a «digital storage system» belonging to the city attorney’s office. According to California law, most police records are classified as confidential; if the leak is confirmed, it would be, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, «a shocking breach of police security.»

World Leaks was launched in January 2025 and is likely the result of the rebranding of the Hunters International group. On its website, the group publishes stolen data in order to force victims to pay a ransom. Since its emergence, World Leaks has targeted organizations in various industries — healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and others. In particular, in early 2026, Nike became a victim of the group. Cybersecurity firm Halcyon noted that World Leaks hackers «have demonstrated the ability to target defense contractors and Fortune 500 organizations.»