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Anonymous hacks BART police site, exposes cops' personal data
by NeelamGoswami - August 18, 2011 - comments
The stolen database, belonging to 102 BART officers, was published online, complete with full names, e-mail addresses, home addresses, and passwords.
Hacktivist group Anonymous and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) continue to butt heads. Hackers broke onto a second Web site affiliated with the San Francisco Bay Area subway system Wednesday, compromising personal information belonging to more than 100 police officers.
Anonymous is upset with BART ever since its police officer fatally shot a knife-wielding man on July 3.
The group also condemns BART Police for recent high-profile incidents including the suspension of cellular phone service last Thursday in an effort to thwart a planned protest, and fatal shooting of unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009 by a former officer who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
Anonymous’ latest attack on BART
On Wednesday, hacktivists carried out a second cyber-attack against BART, hacking a BART Police Officers Association website and ensuing publication of private data belonging to members who patrol the San Francisco region’s subway.
The stolen database belonging to 102 BART officers was published online, complete with full names, e-mail addresses, home addresses, and passwords.
BART Police Officers' Association represents the agency's rank-and-file police officers who were condemned following the July 3 shooting of the knife-wielding man.
The latest attack on BART follows a similar intrusion on Sunday, when the amorphous Anonymous collective breached a BART marketing website, myBART.org, which allowed users to create accounts to receive discounts or special offers.
Intrusion upsets union members
President Jesse Sekhon, an officer whose personal details were also leaked, said he and his members were upset.
"These people are criminals, and we're going to forward this information to the FBI," Sekhon said. "These people need to be brought to justice. They can't be terrorizing people."
"It's very concerning, but you know what, we'll deal with it. Nothing is protected in the electronic age - lesson learned," he said, referring to the hacking of officers' personal details.
Anonymous’ earlier attack on BART
The latest attack on BART follows a similar intrusion on Sunday, when the amorphous Anonymous collective breached a BART marketing website, myBART.org, which allowed users to create accounts to receive discounts or special offers.
The hackers intruded myBART.org, defaced some pages and released online personal details including names, addresses and passwords of more than 2,000 customers.