More Than 1.5 Million Canadian Crime Stoppers Tips Leaked

An investigation by CBC has revealed that over 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips dating back 25 years were compromised in a breach of the P3 Global Intel tip-management platform. Roughly 850,000 records contained personally identifiable information such as addresses, phone numbers, emails, license plates, and some banking details.

The data was stolen last March by a hacktivist collective known as Internet Yiff Machine, who claimed it aimed to debunk P3 Global Intel's assertion that the platform was anonymous and secure. Researchers and journalists, including CBC, gained access to a copy of the stolen data through Distributed Denial of Secrets, a U.S. non-profit that archives and publishes hacked and leaked documents deemed to be in the public interest.

The report uncovered that more than 4,300 Crime Stoppers tipsters disclosed their full names, and numerous records contained staff warnings indicating individuals had self-identified or been exposed, yet their information remained unredacted.

Among the sensitive allegations in the leaked data were cases involving murder, terrorism, drug trafficking, and organized crime. Nearly 49,000 tips were connected to cases that resulted in arrests or criminal charges. Cybersecurity experts have expressed concerns over the retention of such outdated records, questioning whether closed tips need to remain online.

The RCMP was initially misled, believing Canadian data remained unaffected, but was later assured that exposed Canadian records contained no personally identifiable information. This appears to conflict with CBC's findings. Additionally, affected individuals have not been systematically notified due to the potential jeopardy to their anonymity.

Prof. Ali Dehghantanha, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Guelph, highlighted that a system designed to promise anonymity to users has failed categorically.