What is BlueLeaks?

10 min readJul 10, 2020

On June 19, 2020, Distributed Denial of Secrets published 269 gigabytes of data from over 200 different law enforcement fusion centers, training centers and other police field offices.

Below find the media stories that this document release, the largest contemporary leak of data from U.S. law enforcement, has inspired.

Logo for Distributed Denial of Secrets: shows a computer mouse in the shape of a skull and crossbones overlaid with the Philadelphia trans pride flag

United States (general)

Twitter removes account for pointing users to leaked documents obtained by a hacking collective (Copia Institute/Trust and Safety Foundation)

US law enforcement’s warrior complex is on full display in the streets — and in leaked documents (The Nation)
Feds are treating BlueLeaks organization as ‘a criminal hacker group,’ documents show (The Verge)
Security breach impacts state police database (Associated Press)
Blue Leaks collection (The Intercept)
The Return of Anonymous: The infamous hacker group reemerges from the shadows (The Atlantic)
Law enforcement exposed: Massive Blue Leaks, police Pentagon Papers (Popular Resistance)
BlueLeaks moves off Reddit to Dread forums on Tor Network (Dark Rebel)
ed.: the r/blueleaks subreddit was deleted, after which DDoSecrets redditors were invited to an AMA on r/worldnews. Intercept reporters writing about BlueLeaks also visited r/IAmA.
Any encryption backdoor would do more harm than good. BlueLeaks is proof of that (Tutanota blog)

Jeremy Hammond speaks to Blue Leaks for his podcast Twin Trouble

Another general U.S. podcast episode, without embeddable player:
Feds target BlueLeaks publisher & other pressing matters w/ journalist Ali Winston (Parallax Views)

Alabama

Arizona

The feds who made America’s fentanyl freakout worse (Reason)
Law enforcement websites hit by BlueLeaks may have been easy to hack (The Intercept)
Before Portland, Trump’s shock troops went after border activists (The Intercept)

California

BlueLeaks hack suggests bad intel fueled SJPD’s violent response to recent protests (San Jose Inside)
Google giving far-right users’ data to law enforcement, documents reveal (The Guardian)

ACLU tweet about Dataminr, Twitter Co. partner and target of The Intercept reporting.

Google meldet Nutzerdaten unaufgefordert an Behörden (Golem)
How Northern California’s police intelligence center tracked protests (The Intercept)
Radical Islamist prison tattoos? How U.S. Homeland Security spread disinformation from prisons to schools (National Interest)
Twitter blocks users from sharing links to ‘BlueLeaks’ data dump (PC Mag)
Hack of 251 law enforcement websites exposes personal data of 700,000 cops (The Intercept)
Leaked documents show police knew far-right extremists were the real threat at protests, not “Antifa” (The Intercept)
Police surveilled George Floyd protests with help from Twitter-affiliated start-up DataMinr (The Intercept)

Twitter thread by Witness’ Dia Kayyali linking to the recent history of resistance to California’s fusion center’s surveillance of BPOC activism

Twitter und Dataminr überwachen Proteste für die Polizei (Netzpolitik)
Document Unmasks Fusion Center’s Participation in License Plate Surveillance (Tenth Amendment Center)
Twitter suspends account for organization that leaked police documents (The Wrap)
Yes, the police are watching what you post on Facebook about protests (The Daily Dot)
Potentially sensitive files from hundreds of police departments published by hackers (The Hill)
Leaked documents show how police used social media to track George Floyd protesters (Business Insider)
Fusion Centers and the Far Right (Bridge Burner Collective)
Intelligence leaks reveal just how ready the police state is to crack down on dissent (Medium)

Emma Best shares a FOIA result from San Jose that reveals an intelligence investigation into Blue Leaks.

Colorado

FBI extensively monitored Incels on Reddit and Tumblr (Toronto Today)

Delaware

The feds who made America’s fentanyl freakout worse (Reason)

Florida

Police are worried about white extremists organizing on Gab Chat, leaked documents show (Mashable)

Illinois

Leaked DEA, HSI, and FBI report exposes ‘new fusion’ of Mexican cartels contracting Chinese money laundering organizations in Chicago (Shadow Banker)

Iowa

Tilting at windmills: the FBI chased imagined eco-activist enemies, documents reveal (The Intercept)
What’s inside of BlueLeaks? (Iowa State Daily)
Four Iowa law enforcement agencies among those hit by ‘Blue Leaks’ hack (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
‘This is a time bomb’ — Leaked docs reveal homophobic, racist police instructors (The Daily Dot)
BlueLeaks: Inside cops’ islamophobic counterdrug training (Filter Magazine)

Kansas

The FBI’s digital security guide for local police actually has good OPSEC advice (Cyberscoop)

Louisiana

Doorbell cameras like Ring give early warning of police searches, FBI warned (The Intercept)
Leaked Docs Reveal FBI Fears over Ransomware Threat to Election Networks (Computer Business Review)

Maine

#BlueLeaks reveal Fusion Centers employ undercover agents to target activists (Last American Vagabond)
Maine spy agency pushed absurd claim that TikTok teen trained terrorists (Mainer News)
Teenager or terrorist? Maine spy agency spread warnings of BLM protest violence based on far-right rumors (Mainer News)
Maine’s police fusion center launches PR campaign, denies bias in tracking BLM protests (Maine Beacon)
Maine’s police intelligence center sent reports on activists to corporations (Maine Beacon)
Legislators seek annual report on types of cases handled by state police intelligence agency (Press Herald)
Satirical “protest jobs” website was source of official warnings about leftist violence (Mainer News)
Data breach exposes activities of Maine’s secretive police intelligence agency (Maine Beacon)
Secretive police unit gathers information on Maine citizens, commissioner tells lawmakers (Press Herald)
Hundreds of records hacked from Maine intelligence agency (Bangor Daily News)
Data breach exposes information, activities of Maine Information and Analysis Center (NBC affiliate WCSH)
‘Blue leaks’ include information about police surveillance of Black Lives Matter protests (CBS affiliate WGME)
Mainers with data exposed in crime center’s breach have little recourse (Bangor Daily News)
Maine spy agency spread far-right rumors of BLM protest violence (Mainer News)
Hack of Maine police data means hundreds, including suspects, must be notified about leak (Press Herald)

Massachusetts

ICE questions an admin of The-Eye archive site that hosted ‘Blue Leaks’ (Vice)

Minnesota

This is the alleged white supremacist ‘Umbrella Man’ police suspect of Minneapolis chaos (The Daily Beast)
Police claim ‘violent extremists’ exploit coronavirus to defeat facial recognition, leaked files show (Mashable)
Inside Minnesota’s Boogaloo movement: Armed and eager for societal collapse (Star Tribune)
Twitter terminates DDoSecrets, falsely claims it may infect visitors (Ars Tecnica)
Law enforcement scoured protestor communications and exaggerated threats to Minneapolis cops, leaked documents show (The Intercept)
Twitter censored DDoSecrets and made BlueLeaks an even bigger deal (Pando Daily)
Leaked documents: Intelligence wing of law enforcement struggled to fulfill its mission during George Floyd protests (Minnesota Reformer)
Personal information of Minnesota law enforcement, critical infrastructure personnel published online after massive hack (Minnesota Reformer)

Missouri

Nebraska

Tilting at windmills: the FBI chased imagined eco-activist enemies, documents reveal (The Intercept)

Nevada

Sparks Police investigating vulgar, threatening social media posts allegedly made by an officer (This Is Reno)

New Jersey

New Mexico

Albuquerque Police engaged in secret intelligence gathering operation, leaked documents show (Abolish APD)

New York

How ‘Keyser Söze’ leaked a secret trove of police documents that exposed cops tracking George Floyd protesters (Business Insider)(unpaywalled)
Before Portland, Trump’s shock troops went after border activists (The Intercept)

YouTuber Edwin Pagan discusses Blue Leaks documents on Episode 28

Oregon

Leaked Docs Reveal FBI Fears over Ransomware Threat to Election Networks (Computer Business Review)

South Dakota

FBI investigating COVID-19 data breach in South Dakota (Associated Press)
Massive data breach affects SD COVID-19 patients (Keloland)

Emma Best’s tweet on July 10: Response (to FOIA request) from South Dakota implies #DDoSecrets itself is under investigation, not just #BlueLeaks

BlueLeaks (South Dakota Fusion Center)

To Whom It May Concern: Pursuant to the South Dakota Open Records Law, I hereby request the following records: 1…

www.muckrock.com

Texas

BlueLeaks hack raises questions about racial profiling in secret surveillance of Austin residents (Austonia)
Austin’s big secret: How Big Tech and surveillance are increasing policing (Mijente)
Profiling and repression of suspected Maoists in Central Texas (Tribune of the People)
ARIC: Black Marchers With Guns? (Austin Chronicle)
ARIC trainings teach cops and informants junk science (Austin Chronicle)
Local activists call out police and find themselves flagged as threats (Austin Chronicle)

John Bush was tipped off by a local reporter that his name was in Austin police department files in Blue Leaks.

#BlueLeaks reveal Fusion Centers employ undercover agents to target activists (Last American Vagabond)
What a leaked trove of police documents tells us about the first weekend of protests (D Magazine)
Austin Regional Intelligence Center’s secret informants show how profiling works (Austin Chronicle)
“BlueLeaks” data dump contains police files of hundreds of law enforcement agencies, tied back to a third-party services provider (CPO Magazine)
Did you hear about the giant computer hack of 200 U.S. police departments? It’s called BlueLeaks (Dallas Morning News)
APD’s secret informants eyeing neighbors for “suspicious” activity, leaked documents reveal (Austin Chronicle)

Twitter user asks: “(if) the #FBI in #Houston had a training conference in June 2018, where one of the topics was “Israeli tactics to address #terrorism.”ACLU, do these tactics JIVE with the U.S. constitution?”

BlueLeaks exposes files from hundreds of police departments (Krebs on Security)
Twitter bans journalist organization for linking to leaked secret police files (Gizmodo)
‘BlueLeaks’ data dump exposes 269GB of files from hundreds of police departments (PC Mag)
BlueLeaks files expose data from law enforcement, fusion centers (SC Media)
Activists Drop 270GB ‘BlueLeaks’ File of Internal Police Documents Online (Newsweek)
BlueLeaks data dump exposes over 24 years of police records (Bleeping Computer)
How the BlueLeaks data breach happened (Avast)

Document shows Texas police activity tracking Roma people while using racist terminology

Virginia

Step on it, I’ve got the police on my hack: Anon swipes, leaks online 269GB of crime intel docs from cops, Feds (The Register)

Intercept reporter on Twitter: “I’ve looked through thousands of Fusion Center docs in the last few years … This Virginia FC bulletin is unlike any I’ve seen — 10 unhinged pages on how anti-pipeline tree sitters are “co-opting” tactics from Al Qa’ida and the Taliban.”

The growing impact of far-right media and conspiracies on fusion centers (It’s Going Down)

Washington

Amid terror warnings, railroad industry group passed intel on environmental journalist to cops (The Intercept)
How did APD handle the Auburn Black Lives Matter protest? (Auburn Examiner)

Washington D.C.

BlueLeaks documents bolster whistleblower account of intelligence tampering at Homeland Security (The Intercept)
Facebook bans accounts linked to anti-government U.S. ‘boogaloo’ movement (Reuters)
Germany seizes server hosting leaked US police files (The Hill)
Reddit bans forum dedicated to BlueLeaks, data dump of hacked police documents (Washington Times)

West Virginia

Leaked documents show police knew far-right extremists were the real threat at protests, not “Antifa” (The Intercept)

Wisconsin

The junk science cops use to decide you’re lying (The Intercept)

International

Algeria الجزائر‎

Police investigators blame Algerian for coronavirus-themed phishing attacks (Cyberscoop)

Jordan الأردن‎

ما البيانات التي قدمها “تيك توك” عن مستخدميه لأجهزة أمنية؟ (JBC News)

Argentina

Exclusivo: Lorax Horne, de la organización DDoSecrets
El nuevo WikiLeaks (Página12)
Los Blue Leaks desnudan la represión selectiva en EE.UU. (Página12)
BlueLeaks: hackers filtran archivos confidenciales de más de 200 departamentos de policía desde 1996 (Medio Extremo)

Australia

Australia needs to face up to the dangers of facial recognition technology (The Guardian)
Mysterious AssangeLeaks countdown is run by DDoSecrets, the group behind BlueLeaks (Gizmodo Australia)

Austria

Wie die US-Polizei Demonstranten via Social Media überwachte (Der Standard)

Bahamas

‘BlueLeaks’: data from over 200 police departments exposed in a massive leak (Medium)

Bhārät

Server of Wikileaks-like whistleblower collective seized in Germany for exposing US police excesses (Asian Age)

Canada

“Journalism is dying. That’s why this show exists. To explore the frontier where journalism meets comedy.”

Beyond Anonymous: Where Hacktivism is going in 2020 (The Parallax)
Further proof the DHS and FBI monitored LulzSec and Anonymous (Toronto Today)
US Law Enforcement kept tabs on Canadian Activists (Toronto Today)

Québec cyber security researcher: “This is actually an issue for infosec researchers. I’ll be giving a talk at @ASIS_Intl‘s #GSX2020 in September (“Weaponizing Data Breaches”). Needless to say, this leak is quite relevant and not getting fucked around with this might be nice.”

Cayman Islands

FBI concerned over laundering risks in private equity, hedge funds — leaked document (Reuters)

China/中國

Deutschland

Germany seizes server hosting pilfered US police files (Associated Press)
Interne Dokumente: Google gibt freiwillig umfangreiche Nutzerdaten an US-Polizei (Heise)
Hunderttausende US-Polizei-Dokumente geleakt (Der Spiegel)
Deutsche Ermittler beschlagnahmen Server amerikanischer Whistleblower (Zeit Online)
BlueLeaks: Millionen Dokumente von über 200 US-Polizeibehörden (Tarnkappe)
BlueLeaks-Server bei Zwickau beschlagnahmt (Netzpolitik)
Twitter und Dataminr überwachen Proteste für die Polizei (Netzpolitik)
Server mit brisanten US-Polizeiakten in Sachsen beschlagnahmt (Welt)

Éire

200 Law Enforcement Agencies across U.S. hacked, sensitive intel exposed (Breitbart)

France

Italia

México

Panamá

How the FBI tracks Bitcoin laundering on the dark web (Decrypt)

Portugal

“Blue Leaks”: documentos revelam como polícia dos EUA controlava protestos contra o racismo (RTP Notícias)

Russia

سوريا/Syria

Communist ISIS Antifa: Homeland Security’s confused pursuit of pro-Kurdish Americans (National Interest)

United Kingdom

Podcasts

Episode 179: Blue Leaks, interview with Freddy Martinez and Micah Lee (Delete Your Account)
Episode 5: #Blueleaks and the movement for Black Lives (Twin Trouble)
The Cyberlaw Podcast: Using the Internet to cause emotional distress is a felony? (Lawfare)
Episode 152: US bill would make encryption back-doors mandatory (Axis of Easy)
‘Blue Leaks’ file dump reveals ‘what police are doing’ to suppress protests (Sputnik)
Episode 128: Off the hook (2600 magazine)

YouTube

ThreatWire covers BlueLeaks on June 24