The much-vaunted Greek FBI, a new agency ostensibly assigned to thwart organized crime and improve homeland security, whose launch was announced with great fanfare by the Greek police (EL.AS) last week, seems to be compromised before even getting off the ground.
According to reports, the personal details, including the names of the agents picked to staff the Organized Crime Directorate, as the new agency is called, were leaked to the public, raising serious questions about the online data protection transfer within the Greek police department.
Specifically, as reported by To Vima and Ta Nea police correspondent Vasilis Lampropoulos, the leak occurred on Tuesday morning on a police news website.
According to reports, the Greek police had prepared 5-6 documents detailing the transfers of 554 officers to respective services in Athens and Thessaloniki. These were forwarded electronically to dozens of departments that needed adequate data protection measures.
The same sources indicate that the files with all the names were shared in informal online groups used by uniformed officers on Viber and similar platforms. It is believed that the leak may have occurred due to bad judgment calls by some officers.
Commenting on the embarrassing development, Greek police spokesperson Konstantina Dimoglidou told television station ANT1 that some people are oblivious to the fact that by disclosing these names and details, they are risking the lives of the officers.
She added, “These individuals will now have to deal with cases of organized crime and very dangerous criminals. The disclosure is unacceptable.”
She further emphasized, “This specific order reached many departments, and there will be an investigation into where the leak came from.”
According to Greek state broadcaster ERT, the Internal Affairs division of the Hellenic Police has already ordered an investigation into the leak of 550 names of Greek FBI officers.
Following the awkward leak, the union of Greek police officers issued a statement condemning the incident.
