By IANS/EFE,
Washington : A group of hackers said that it had obtained access to “a massive amount of confidential information that is sure to (embarrass), discredit and incriminate police officers across the US”.
US authorities are neither confirming or denying that the alleged cyberattack took place.
The group Anonymous said it hoped the disclosures would “demonstrate the inherently corrupt nature of law enforcement using their own words” and “disrupt and sabotage their ability to communicate and terrorize communities”, adding that it had hacked into the web pages of some 70 law enforcement agencies.
The group said in a statement that it had obtained large numbers of emails, credit card numbers and other data from about 70 websites of police departments in the central and southern part of the country.
“We neither deny nor confirm the reports about the group Anonymous, and I can only say that we always share information with police authorities about any threat that could arise, whether it be terrorists or information pirates,” an FBI official told EFE on condition of anonymity.
“We always share information with the idea of improving our response to those threats,” the FBI official said, without providing any additional details about the alleged hack-attack, which apparently was undertaken in reprisal for the arrests of some of the group’s members.
Since July 19, federal officials have been warning police that Anonymous and associated groups are “successfully” continuing to use “simple tactics, techniques and procedures … even against entities who have invested a significant amount of time and capital into designing and securing their information networks”, said a Department of Homeland Security bulletin.
The six-page document, prepared by the National Cybersecurity Communications and Integration Center, or NCCIC, recommended at the time that given the expertise of cyber-pirates, the authorities should “adjust monitoring of both internal and external resources for indications of a pending or ongoing attack on cyber or telecommunications networks”.
The NCCIC recommended that federal and local authorities share information about possible cyberattacks, how to prevent them and counteract them.
The members of Anonymous and allied groups like LulzSec continue harassing public and private entities with basic hacking attacks, the NCCIC bulletin said.