The Dallas Police Department, Texas City, USA lost 22 terebytes of data from its internal network (which includes evidence of a murder) during a botched database migration. Dallas police acknowledged the error in a statement published on Wednesday (11).
According to the corporation, Police officers noticed that some files were missing and reported the case to authorities on April 5th of this year. Of the 22 terabytes compromised, approximately 14 were recovered but 8 are still missing.
“On August 6, 2021, the Dallas Police Department (DPD) and the City of Dallas Department of Information and Technology Services (ITS) informed the management of this Office that, in April 2021, the city discovered that Several Terabytes of DPD data were deleted during a data migration from a DPD network drive“writes the document, signed by Dallas District Attorney John Creuzot.
Suspect is released after the ‘flicker’
A murder suspect who would be tried on Thursday (12) was released due to lack of evidence, after deleting the files, but was ordered to post bail and wear an electronic ankle bracelet.
“This can be a very serious problem. This is a big red flag if you’re a defense attorney. […] It would be very worrisome for the DA’s office to get a late notice for one and then try to determine exactly what kind of data breach we have,” Toby Shook, former head of the Dallas Criminal Trial Division, told local media.
Sources: The Register; CBSDFW; TheHack.
