Have you applied for a job at the Police Authority? Then your personal data may have been disclosed.
This is what the authority warns in an email sent out to roughly 64,000 people.
Several people have recently received an email from the police stating that there has been an “incident which means that there has been an unauthorized disclosure of personal data”.
In an attachment to the email, it appears that the supplier that manages the police’s application system was exposed to a breach in April, which means that information used in job applications has been exposed.
“The police authority assesses that what happened entails a risk of intrusion into your personal integrity,” it says further.
Over 60,000 people affected
In an email to TV4 Nyheterna, the police state that it is about 64,000 people who have applied for positions with a lower security class with the police in 2023.
The breach has taken place at a subcontractor to the supplier that the authority uses for “certain job applications”.
The police state that the incident has been reported to the police and that a preliminary investigation is underway. “What exactly has happened is being investigated right now,” says the email to TV4 Nyheterna.
The incident has also been reported to the Swedish Privacy Protection Authority.
“A group has taken this on”
The police’s recruitment tool is managed by Visma. The company confirms to TV4 Nyheterna that there was a breach at one of their subcontractors.
– We know that there was an attack on them, and that a group took this on. I cannot answer in detail how it happened, says Malin Carlson, press contact at Visma.
However, Visma’s own investigation has not been able to show that any personal data has been disclosed.
– From what we can see, it’s about test data, but we can’t guarantee it.
Become targets
Digitization expert Johan Öbrink tells TV4 Nyheterna that the breach does not necessarily mean that someone has access to sensitive data, on the other hand, the data must be considered disclosed – and that can mean a risk.
– They become targets for identity theft, “The more I know about you, the easier it is to trick a relative of yours into giving me money”, for example, he says.