Anonymous hackers attack law enforcement sites
Updated at 3:07 p.m. ET
SALT LAKE CITY - Hackers have taken over the websites of several law enforcement agencies worldwide in attacks attributed to the collective called Anonymous, including in Boston and in Salt Lake City, where police say personal information of confidential informants and tipsters was accessed.
The Utah hackers gained access Tuesday to sensitive data, including citizen complaints about drug crimes, including phone numbers, addresses and other personal information, police said.
"We're still knee deep in trying to get a feel for the extent of the problem," Salt Lake City police Detective Dennis McGowan said Friday.
The group claimed responsibility for an attack on the website of a Virginia law firm for a U.S. Marine convicted in a deadly 2005 attack in Haditha, Iraq.
Police clear out Occupy Boston camp
Hackers intercept FBI, U.K. police call
Anonymous duped people into joining Web attacks
The attacks come after Anonymous published a recording of a phone call between the FBI and Scotland Yard early Wednesday, gloating in a Twitter message that "the FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now."
In Greece, the Justice Ministry took down its site Friday after a video by activists claiming to be Greek and Cypriot members of Anonymous was displayed for at least two hours.
In Boston, message posted on the police website Friday said, "Anonymous hacks Boston Police website in retaliation for police brutality at OWS," apparently a reference to the Occupy Wall Street movement. A police spokesman would not confirm Anonymous was responsible.
The hackers posted a music video by '80s rapper KRS-One on the Boston police department's website with a message that threatened "more mayhem," CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston reported.
In a message posted to the site, the group said that the site had been attacked several months ago and that hundreds of passwords were released in retaliation for what they called brutality against Occupy Boston.
In October, Boston police acknowledged that various websites used by members of the police department — including the website belonging to the police patrolmen's association — had been hacked and possibly compromised. The department said it had asked all department personnel to change their passwords on the police department's network.
Boston's Occupy movement set up camp in the city's financial district for two months this fall. The first hack came about 10 days after Boston police arrested 141 Occupy Boston demonstrators on Oct. 11.
Police dismantled the camp Dec. 10, citing public health and safety concerns.
"They clearly ignored our warnings," the message on the department's website said Friday.
"So you get your kicks beating protesters? "That's OK; we get kicks defacing ... your websites — again."
"It is unfortunate that someone would go to this extent to compromise BPDNews.com, a helpful and informative public safety resource utilized daily by community members seeking up-to-date news and information about important safety matters," police said in a statement.
The Salt Lake City website remained down Friday as the investigation continued, and police said criminal charges are being considered.
Police in blamed the attack on Anonymous' opposition to an anti-graffiti paraphernalia bill that eventually failed in the state Senate. The bill would have made it illegal to possess any instrument, tool or device with the intent of vandalizing an area with graffiti.
The group says it attacked the website of the Alexandria, Va., law firm of Puckett & Faraj, which represented a U.S. Marine convicted in a 2005 attack in Iraq that resulted in the deaths of 24 unarmed civilians. Attorney Neal Puckett did not immediately return a telephone message and e-mail request for comment Friday.
Anonymous is a collection of Internet enthusiasts, pranksters and activists whose targets have included financial Visa and MasterCard, the Church of Scientology and law enforcement agencies.
Following a spate of arrests across the world, the group and its various offshoots have focused their attention on law enforcement agencies in general and the FBI in particular.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Bridge collapse blamed on tractor-trailer 280 Comments
- Port Authority releases photo of One WTC workers at dizzying heights
- Washington state bridge collapses 20 Photos
- Best U.S. beaches 2013 10 Photos
- No fatalities in I-5 bridge collapse in NW Wash. 141 Comments
- Earthquake, multiple aftershocks jolt Californians
- Clean-up efforts underway in Okla. 29 Photos
- Boy Scouts approve plan to accept openly gay boys 1125 Comments
The plan is to bankrupt Americans, kill American Soldiers, and spend $Trillions of American dollars with wars that turn countries over to the Saudi Dictatorship like Iran, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Tunisia.
The plan is to make the FBI, Boston Police, Salt Lake City Police and any Occupy Police look stupid and incompetent so we will not look at the International Saudi led attack on America.
The Occupy plan is to get people to protest and then the Saudi Dictatorship will pay "riots for hire" Muslim Brotherhood to throw rocks and start fires to turn peaceful legal protests into illegal violent riots by a few "blackshirt infiltrators from Saudi Arabia".
RIOTS => "SAUDI PUPPET" OBAMA MARTIAL LAW DICTATORSHIP => SUSPEND THE CONGRESS AND THE CONSTITUTION => TOTAL OVERTHROW OF AMERICA BY THE SAUDIS
And you know what, ALL of the people in power from the city councils all the way up to the White House are complicit unless they are actively working with Occupy to revise the broken American political and financial system.
It's simple. Compliance is complicity and no one is above that.