[ISN] Cybercriminals down five British police forces in a year

[InfoSec News]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/05/police_breaches/

By Chris Williams
The Register
5th November 2009 

In the last year five British police forces have suffered major computer 
failures lasting three days or more as a result of malicious internet 
attacks.

The spate of intrusions by cybercriminals and the resulting outages was 
revealed recently by a senior authoritative source, who can't be 
identified because the disclosure was made under the Chatham House rule.

The source did not reveal which forces were the victims of the attacks 
or the method used.

The Association of Chief Police Officers, which coordinates police 
strategy nationally, declined to comment on the incidents.

Despite the official silence on the matter, the news of repeated 
breaches raises serious questions over the standard of police 
information security.

Virtually all of day-to-day police operations are dependent on IT 
systems such as the Police National Computer and the major incident 
coordination software HOLMES 2, as well as more mundane but vital human 
resources and equipment provisioning systems.

[...]