Ottawa police halt Crime Stoppers after 1.5M tips leaked in data breach

Ottawa police have suspended their use of Crime Stoppers following a massive data breach exposing over 1.5 million Canadian tips. Several Ontario forces have done the same.

Ottawa Police Service pauses Crime Stoppers amid massive tip leak

The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) has temporarily suspended its use of Crime Stoppers after a CBC News investigation revealed more than 1.5 million Canadian tips had been compromised in a large-scale data breach.

In a news release issued Friday, OPS stated it was aware of the reported breach and, "out of an abundance of caution," had halted use of the platform while the situation is under review. The service said it is working to understand the "scope and impact of the incident" and will continue to "assess any potential impacts on police operations."

According to cbc.ca, which broke the story exclusively, the hacked data contained tips submitted to Crime Stoppers programs across Canada over the past 25 years. Of those 1.5 million-plus records, more than 850,000 — roughly half — included personally identifiable information. CBC News was unable to determine in every case whether the data belonged to a tipster, a victim or a person accused of a crime.

OPS emphasized that Crime Stoppers operates independently from the police service and that the Crime Stoppers reporting platform is not connected to OPS internal systems. "While OPS and Crime Stoppers have worked closely in support of community safety, Crime Stoppers operates independently from the police service," the statement reads.

In the meantime, Ottawa police are asking the public to contact them directly to report crimes, suspicious activity or information related to ongoing investigations. The service acknowledged that direct contact does not offer the same level of anonymity as Crime Stoppers. "While we take the protection of personal information seriously and handle it in accordance with our privacy and information security obligations, it doesn't necessarily offer the same anonymity as Crime Stoppers," OPS said.

Ottawa is not alone. Police services in Toronto, York Region, Halton Region, Windsor, Kingston, Cornwall and Hamilton have all announced suspensions of their partnerships with local Crime Stoppers chapters following the disclosure of the breach.

Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)