Europol is hit/ files of high officials disappear

2024-03-27 12:42:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Europol is hit/ files of high officials disappear

Illustrative photo

The top law enforcement agency in the fight against organized crime, Europol has been embroiled in a scandal. According to foreign media, the files with the data of high officials have disappeared. These files were supposed to be kept under high security and locked inside Europol headquarters.

A number of files containing personal information of senior executives disappeared last summer. The European law enforcement agency has been mired in trouble ever since. The files containing the personal data of Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle and other senior officials were released before September.

On 6 September 2023, the Europol Directorate was informed that the personal files of several Europol staff members had disappeared. When officials checked all the agency's records, they discovered they were missing.

"Given Europol's role as a law enforcement authority, the disappearance of staff members' personal files constitutes a serious security incident and personal data breach," said the note shared on the internal message board system that belongs to the 18th of September.

Europol is one of the largest agencies of the European Union. It coordinates major international investigations and operations with national police authorities and partners such as Interpol and the United States FBI.

Politico.eu spoke to four current and former Europol officials with knowledge of the incident. Some of the lost files resurfaced when a citizen found them abandoned in a public place in The Hague and brought them to a local police station, officials said.

It was not clear how long they had been missing or why they had been taken from inside the facility, they said. A spokesman for The Hague police force, Steven van Santen, said: "The Hague police were involved in several details related to an internal Europol investigation."

The personnel files were those of Europol Executive Director De Bolle and three of her deputy directors, Jürgen Ebner, Andrei Lin?? and Jean-Philippe Lecouffe.

HR files may contain information about an official's job application, relevant training, dates of birth, status, dependents, current address and other regular information maintained by HR, one of the officials said.

Europol Human Resources data files are kept locked in a safe, in a room that is restricted to limited personnel. Very few people know the vault code, one of the officials said.

One theory is that the files could have been obtained to harm Bett, in the context of internal conflicts within the agency, according to officials./ CNA