The Police National Legal Database (PNLD), a legal lookup service used by police forces and criminal justice agencies across the UK, has confirmed that cybercriminals stole its data, including names and work email addresses of police officers, justice staff, government partners and customers. PNLD, which is operated by West Yorkshire Police, discovered the "data security incident" on 26 July and is investigating with cybersecurity specialists and the National Crime Agency. The breach matters because it is the second confirmed UK public sector data theft in weeks, adding pressure on authorities to explain how sensitive law enforcement contact information keeps ending up in criminals' hands.

An extortion group calling itself "ExfilSquad" claims to have stolen a 1.9GB dataset containing around 135,000 law enforcement contact records, and has also listed PNLD's public-facing "Ask the Police" site, where the impact appears limited to names and email addresses of people who submitted questions. PNLD says there is no evidence passwords or authentication data were compromised, but has not disclosed how the attackers got in or how many people were affected. The same group claimed responsibility last week for a breach of the Department for Education, which confirmed over 607,000 exposed records, and ExfilSquad also lists Microsoft as a victim with an alleged 13GB haul, a claim that remains unverified.