Hacker’s phone call to police saying he defaced their website.. because he was bored

A number of websites associated with US police have been compromised by AntiSec hackers in apparent support of the “Occupy” demonstrations.

One of the sites targeted was the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPPA), which suffered a hack which resulted in the release of a thousand usernames and passwords. An obvious danger is that staff may be using the same username/password combinations on other sites – such as their email accounts or Facebook.

In addition, the AntiSec movement claimed in an online press release to be publishing more than 600MB of data stolen from the International Association of Chief of Police (IACP) website, including names and addresses, passwords and internal documents.

Names, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers for police officers in Alabama have also been exposed, and a contact database associated with employees and clients of the internet company Matrix Group made public…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter, Mastodon, or Threads to read more of the exclusive content we post.

Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.