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February 12, 2012 By News Staff
“Anonymous” has struck again — this time claiming to have hacked Alabama state and local law enforcement computers, and accessing sensitive information of more than 46,000 state residents.
On Friday, Feb. 10, Anonymous posted a press release claiming to have the full names, Social Security numbers, license tag numbers, dates of birth and other sensitive information of those Alabamans. The group posted online a heavily redacted list of 500 persons’ personal information.
“We mean no harm by releasing this redacted information. This data was not securely segregated from the Internet, nor was it properly encrypted,” the announcement from Anonymous said.
The three Anonymous members claiming responsibility for the hacking of Alabama’s data cited the state’s “racist” immigration policy as their motivation for exploring the state’s servers.
The group claimed to have accessed the sensitive information through computers belonging to the Mobile Police Department.
“This is an ongoing investigation by the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and any further comment would be premature at this time,” said Alabama Department of Homeland Security Director Spencer Collier.
Anonymous, a loosely-knit group, also has hacked online material from high-profile organizations such as Sony and the U.S. Department of Justice. The CIA and Mexican government reportedly also were targeted by Anonymous late last week.
You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.govtech.com/security/Anonymous-Targets-Alabamas-Computer-Systems.html
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Sounds like reckless negligence on the part of the Mobile PD for not having this very sensitive info. treated as such. Feel bad for those folks whose info. was posted.
Sounds like criminal mischief on the part of Anonymous. If they don't like Alabama's "racist" immigration policy why don't they move there and run for office on a platform of changing it?
Yes Dave, and right after that they could go to Syria and run for office there. Did you ever stop to think they maybe they already are inside of Alabama Government and in true bureaucratic fashion get shut down and shut out of any meaningful conversation due to lack of more powerful political allies. Perhaps they live in a different country and immigration to their beloved Alabama is a pipe dream due to economic status or, hmmm I don't know, they couldn't get in because of Alabama's racist immigration policies. Don't you suppose it's negligence bordering criminal mischief on the part of law enforcement agencies to have peoples personal data readily accessible on the internet? Perhaps some 'criminals' with less scruples would have perchance posted the information without redacting it, or worse didn't let anyone know about the train tunnel security gap, and created put it to use getting credit in other peoples name?
Some good points. If their goal was to point out the flaws of the Alabama government's IT security for the benefit of protecting the citzens of Alabama, then I'm all for it. But that's not what the article said. It said it was a protest against immigration policy. I fail to see the connection.
Anonymous cannot be the work of just some weekend hackers. It cannot be some college kids looking for thrills. This is the work of a budgeted organization. It would appear that there is something to be gained from their attacks. In criminal investigations, one follows the money. My initial guess is that there is a service that gets contacted every time a big organization gets hacked. Millions of dollars are at stake. Almost seems like extortion.