National Crime Agency (NCA) leaflets distributed to young people about cyber-crime shared a website link that led to “explicit sexual content”.
The NCA said it became aware of the issue following a report that was made to Nottinghamshire Police by a school in the county earlier this week.
In a message to parents, seen by the BBC, The South Wolds Academy and Sixth Form warned parents the link “appeared to have been hacked or compromised”. The leaflets were distributed across England and Wales.
A spokesperson for the NCA said officers were “working to ascertain the cause of the redirection”.
The leaflets contained a link that should have directed people to the Cyber Choices website – which shared information about using cyber skills legally.
The NCA spokesperson said: “We have been notified that a link on the Cyber Choices website was being redirected to an inappropriate address.
“As soon as we were made aware, the link was removed from the websites and online material, and contact was made with forces to request any printed material is destroyed.
“Officers are working to ascertain the cause of the redirection.”
The NCA said the leaflets were sent to regional organisation crime units, which then decided where and how they were distributed locally.
The South Wolds Academy and Sixth Form said in its letter to parents it had shared the material with “a very small number” of sixth form students and asked that the literature was thrown away when it became aware of the link.
A spokesperson for the school said: “Due to the high level of cyber protection in place to safeguard students and staff at The South Wolds Academy and Sixth Form, the NCA leaflet link that had been compromised could not be accessed in school.
“A member of staff attempted to access the link to careers information in the leaflet. However, the filtering and monitoring system we have in place directly blocked this and it reported the risk immediately.
“We then contacted all parents and carers as a precaution as well as reporting it, via the police at Cyber Choices, to the NCA.”
The National Cyber Crime Unit, which sits within the NCA, looked into the matter and said it was not possible to say when the redirection occurred – but added it was likely recent due to website registration changes, updated on 5 December, the NCA said.
When the links were checked two weeks ago as part of a website update, there had been no issues, it added.
The organisation said it would also speak to the National Police Chiefs’ Council to contact wider organisations that also received hard copies of the leaflets.
It added other law enforcement, schools and government organisations that also had the link on their websites would be contacted.
