A data breach has compromised the personal records of nearly 14,000 people under court supervision and contact details for thousands of criminal justice employees, according to reporting.
The incident targeted RemoteCOM, a company that provides computer, smartphone and tablet monitoring services for pretrial, probation and parole clients across 49 US states. A leaked RemoteCOM training manual cited in the reporting describes SCOUT, the company’s proprietary client management application, as used to track people involved in a wide range of offences, including sex offences, narcotics and alleged terrorism.
The manual and related materials show SCOUT can record keystrokes, capture screenshots, track location and automatically send alerts to probation officers when users type certain keywords. An informational handout included in the leak lists fees for monitored people: a $50 installation fee for each computer, $30 for phone installations and a recurring $35 monthly monitoring fee per device, and labels some clients as “tech savvy.”
According to SAN’s report, the hacker known as “wikkid” claimed responsibility for the breach and said it was “easiest.” The leaked material was divided into two files: a “Clients” file of approximately 14,000 records that contained names, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses and specific charges, and an “Officers” file of about 6,896 entries listing names, job titles, phone numbers, work addresses and email addresses. The clients file also contained more than 380,000 activity alerts sent to officers, some flagging keywords such as “Nazi” or “sex,” and included instances where SCOUT was installed on relatives’ phones.
Security analysts and the reporting highlighted dangers for both monitored individuals and justice system staff: the exposure of offence categories and personal details could make monitored people targets, and the disclosure of officers’ contact and workplace information could put them and their families at risk. The reporting noted that not every person listed is necessarily a convicted offender; some may be suspects or awaiting trial.
RemoteCOM issued a short statement to SAN saying it is “assessing the situation currently.” The reporting did not disclose whether law enforcement had been notified or whether the data had been further disseminated publicly. The breach is under investigation and developments remain emerging.