Secret documents containing employees’ personal data disappear from Europol office in The Hague – Politico

Europol, the European Union’s main police department, is investigating the disappearance of confidential data of senior department officials. Politico reports this.

The personnel files of Europol chief executive Catherine De Bolle and other senior agency officials disappeared before September 2023, according to interviews with current and former agency employees as well as an internal memo reviewed by Politico.

But as stated in the publication, the files were supposed to be kept under lock and key in a secure warehouse within Europol headquarters in The Hague.

“On September 6, 2023, the Europol directorate reported the loss of personal files of several employees. After checking all records, the agency discovered that some files were missing,” Politico emphasizes.

Important

Since then, European law enforcement has been mired in a detective investigation, according to the publication.

“Given Europol’s role as a law enforcement agency, the loss of personnel files constitutes a serious security and personal data breach,” the note published in Europol’s internal reporting system said.

Politico described some details of the incident obtained from current and former employees of the department. According to them, some of the missing documents were discovered thanks to a resident of The Hague, who found them in a public place and brought them to the local police station.

Insiders said: “The personal files belonged to Europol director general Catherine De Bolle and three of her deputies. After this, the head of the agency’s human resources department was sent on “administrative leave”.

Additionally, one of the officials said the missing files may contain information about the officer’s job application, relevant education, date of birth, marital status, children, current address and other typical information maintained by the human resources department.

“Very few people know the code to the safe or are directly familiar with the procedure. It is unclear how the files were obtained,” one of the officials emphasized.

What is known about Europol

Europol is one of the largest EU institutions, coordinating major international investigations and operations with national police authorities and partners such as Interpol and the US FBI.

Regarding the protection of the confidentiality of data, including personal data, Europol’s hard copy personnel files are kept locked in a safe in a room for limited staff access only.

The agency has a total of more than 1,400 employees. Since 2016, Europol’s Human Resources Department has been led by Massimiliano Bettin, who previously served as Chief Marshal of the Italian Police.

Let us remind you that there are diamonds, cryptocurrencies and thousands of euros in cash. Captured in a special operationIt was carried out by agents of the Spanish National Police together with Europol (EUROPOL).