Law enforcement websites and Internet services, including those used by the Boston Police Department came under attack yesterday by members of a hacker group called Anonymous.
In a statement released by the group taking credit for the hack, the group claims “solidarity with occupation movement and anti-police brutality protesters.”
“In solidarity with the Occupation Movement and the International Day of Action Against Police Brutality, [we] aim at the corrupt bootboys of the 1 pecent: the police,” the statement read.
The group claimed that it “hacked, defaced, and destroyed several law enforcement targets, leaking over 600MB of private information including internal documents, membership rosters, addresses, passwords, social security numbers, and other confidential data.” It also claimed to take down at least 40 police-related websites.
The group attacked multiple Boston police websites. Most notable, Anonymous hacked the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association website and its web-based email portal, posting the names, email addresses, and email passwords of nearly 1,000 Boston police officers on the Internet for all to see.
In the statement, Anonymous said it attacked BPD sites in response to “the unprovoked mass arrests and brutality experienced by those at Occupy Boston.”
“Let this be a warning to BPD and police everywhere: future acts of aggression against our movements will be met with a vengeance so epic and relentless that your children’s children will puke at the sight of swine,” the statement read.
The International Association of Chief of Police website, IACP.org was targeted. The website was down and unreachable early this morning.
Anonymous also took aim at MatrixGroup.net, the website of Matrix Group International, which Internet services for government agencies. The Matrix website would also not load at press time.
In perhaps the most serious security breach, Anonymous hacked Birmingham / Jefferson County, Ala. police websites, releasing the names, addresses, and social security numbers of nearly 1,000 police officers.
This is what’s known in the movement as an “autonomous action” – an action not approved by consensus at a General Assembly but rather performed by one of more individuals who say that are acting on behalf of the movement. The idea of autonomous actions has wide support, but individual occupations generally avoid passing judgment as to whether a particular action (such as this one) gets the thumb up or thumbs down.
So what your saying is that, Anonymous has created an uncontrollable monster of followers. These are just websites, not living people…get over it!