Dutch man receives wrong link from police, downloads secret files and gets arrested

Dutch police arrested a 40-year-old man for hacking after one of their own officers inadvertently gave him access to confidential files. The suspect refused to part with the documents unless given “something in return.”

The authorities acknowledge their own mistake – the files were accidentally exposed to the man.

The suspect himself first contacted the police on February 12th, offering footage potentially relevant to the investigation of a separate ongoing criminal investigation.

The officer, who was in contact with the man, wanted to send an upload link. However, due to an error, the links were switched, and the police shared the download link instead of the upload link. It gave download access to confidential police documents, according to the Politie press release.

“The man decided to download the files. Police told him to stop and delete the files. The man said he would only stop and hand over the files if he received something in return. Therefore, the police decided to arrest the man and seize his storage devices to secure the files and prevent their distribution,” the translation reads.

The police followed data breach protocol and charged the man for unauthorized computer access (“Computervredebreuk”).

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Dutch police believe that the recipient, who expected an upload link and received a download link, could reasonably assume that the files were not intended for him. The suspect was “clearly told not to download anything” but chose to download the files anyway, which could constitute unauthorized computer access.

The police didn’t detail what documents were exposed, but assured that there was no indication of further distribution.

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