Anonymous Strikes U.S. Law Enforcement Sites

Posted on Aug 7, 2011

Flickr / csuspect

A demonstrator wearing Anonymous’ signature Guy Fawkes mask taunts members of the Westboro Baptist Church at one of their protests. Anonymous has previously taken credit for crashing the church’s website.

The hacking group Anonymous took credit Saturday for the theft of a cache of data from rural American law enforcement websites in retaliation for arrests of associates and sympathizers in the United States and Britain.

The stolen material appears to contain some sensitive information, including tips regarding suspected crimes and the identities of their providers, credit card information and details of ongoing investigations. One person confirmed money had been stolen from his credit card account, and a number of the offices targeted seemed unaware of the attacks as of early Saturday evening. —ARK

The Huffington Post:

The group known as Anonymous said Saturday it hacked into some 70 mostly rural law enforcement websites in the United States, a data breach that at least one local police chief said leaked sensitive information about an ongoing investigation.

The loose-knit international hacking collective posted a cache of data to the Internet early Saturday, including emails stolen from officers, tips which appeared to come from members of the public, credit card numbers and other information.

Anonymous said it had stolen 10 gigabytes worth of data in retaliation for arrests of its sympathizers in the U.S. and Britain.

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