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

ATHENS, Greece — A Greek police officers association says it is planning legal action after names and details of hundreds of officers from a new elite crime-fighting agency were published on the internet.

The Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, DAOE, was launched Thursday to tackle organized crime activities including contract killings, fuel smuggling and money laundering.

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

The leak was published earlier this week on a news website focused on police and public safety, and subsequently reposted on private chat groups.

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

“We are completely unconcerned whether this was a mistake or whether some considered the publication to be ‘exclusive information,’” the association said. “Our only concern is the result: Detailed personal information of officers in a newly established service has become accessible to everyone.”

The complaint was forwarded to lawmakers by Greece’s main opposition party, which accused the conservative government of displaying an attitude “of complete indifference and incompetence concerning data protection.”

The new national agency is the flagship department for a major police reorganization, and will focus on combating serious and organized crime, that also includes crimes against life and property, human trafficking and financial crimes. The DAOE will collaborate with other domestic law enforcement agencies, as well as international organizations such as Europol and Interpol, the European and global crime fighting agencies.