Hacker collectives, LulzSec and Anonymous claim to have compromised the servers of the Missouri Sheriff’s Association, posting some 10GB of sensitive data online.
According to a statement posted online, the leaked information includes more than 300 email accounts from some 56 law enforcement domains. In addition to that information, the hacker groups reportedly leaked more than 7,000 user names, plain-text passwords, home addresses, phone and social security numbers. The leak is also reported to include online police training academy PDFs, videos and HTML files.
The groups claim this leak is in retribution for the slew of arrests and raids carried out across the U.S. in recent weeks.
The leaked information includes data that could have an immediate impact on public safety, including a list of tipsters who sent information to an e-mail tip line. Some of the information provided by the informants, who Anonymous labels “snitches,” led to house raids and arrests of alleged group members.
The Missouri Sheriff’s Association was replaced with a place holder page Saturday. An Association spokesman was not available for comment.
Prior to the leak of information, a local NBC affiliate quoted Steve Cox of the Sheriff’s Association saying that he thinks the hackers claim to have more information than they really do. Cox said the group just wants “glory and fame.”
Anonymous responded by releasing their cache of stolen documents. “We are doing this in solidarity with Topiary and the Anonymous PayPal LOIC defendants as well as all other political prisoners who are facing the gun of the crooked court system,” the groups say in their statement.
In the statement the groups also says they feel no sympathy for the officers or the informants who they accused of “using and abusing our personal information, spying on us, arresting us, beating us, and thinking that they can get away with oppressing us in secrecy.”
The statement is peppered with references to the rap group Dead Prez. Dead Prez, perhaps best known for their single “Hell Yeah,” (explicit version) is a rap group that formed in the late-nineties and is known for their somewhat militant lyrical style espousing social justice and Pan-Africanism. The group has previously invoked British folk hero and revolutionary, Guy Fawkes, and the movie that made him popular in the U.S., “V for Vendetta.”
