Greek police data leak exposes details of elite members of crime-fighting unit

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – An association of Greek police officers says it plans legal action after the names and details of hundreds of officers from an elite new crime-fighting agency were published on the Internet.

The Directorate for the Fight Against Organized Crime, DAOE, was launched on Thursday to deal with organized crime activities such as contract killings, fuel trafficking and money laundering.

Police officials confirmed they were investigating leaked details of more than 500 members of the new agency from an internally distributed document on staff transfers and the reorganization of subordinate departments.

The leak was posted earlier this week on a news website focused on police and public safety and later reposted in private chat groups.

On Friday, a complaint from the Athens Police Officers Association was submitted to parliament, saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the incident and the response of the police leadership.

“We are completely unconcerned if it was a mistake or if some considered the post to be ‘proprietary information,'” the association said. “Our only concern is the result: the detailed personal information of officers of a newly established service has been made publicly available.”

The complaint was taken to lawmakers by Greece’s main opposition party, which accused the conservative government of showing an attitude of “total indifference and incompetence when it comes to data protection.”

The new national agency is the flagship department of a major police reorganisation, and will focus on tackling serious and organized crime, which also includes crime against life and property, people-trafficking and financial crime. The DAOE will collaborate with other national law enforcement agencies, as well as with international organizations such as Europol and Interpol, the European and global crime-fighting agencies.