Washington, United States. A hacker has claimed to have breached a U.S. platform used to search law enforcement hotline messages, compromising more than 8 million confidential tips. Navigate360 said it is investigating whether it experienced a computer network incident and what information may be involved.
Hacker’s claim and alleged data theft
In a statement posted online, the hacker, who used the name “Internet Yiff Machine,” said they broke into tip intelligence platform P3 Global Intel, described as an arm of safety company Navigate360, and stole 93 gigabytes of data.
The hacker said in an email that they took over one of P3’s customer accounts via social engineering and then exploited a vulnerability to obtain data.
Company and FBI responses
The FBI declined comment.
Navigate360 said it was trying to determine “whether we have experienced an incident involving our computer network and, if so, the extensiveness of the incident and the information involved.” The company said it had hired a third party to investigate and would not comment further.
On its website, Navigate360 described itself as the “leading provider of innovative tips and leads solutions” for law enforcement, federal agencies, the military, and school safety initiatives.
Independent reporting and data access
Reuters said it could not immediately verify the hacker’s claims.
Straight Arrow News, which first reported the breach, said it corroborated the authenticity of some of the material by contacting tipsters whose details appeared in the data.
The transparency website Distributed Denial of Secrets, which archives material from hacks and leaks, said it had received a copy of the data and would make it available to “established journalists and researchers.” In a statement, the site’s founder, Emma Best, said the data “provides excruciating detail” on a tip-collection system that “seeks to make everyone an informant.”
What steps should organizations take to verify and respond to claims of a breach involving sensitive tip data?
