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Missouri Sheriff's Association targeted in widespread cyberattack
[August 05, 2011]

Missouri Sheriff's Association targeted in widespread cyberattack


Aug 04, 2011 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The Missouri Sheriff's Association is one of about 75 law enforcement groups drawn unwittingly into a widespread cyberattack when a group of hackers claimed to have stolen personal data relating to thousands of police officers.



AntiSec, which has targeted large government agencies worldwide, claims to have accessed Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, usernames, passwords and email addresses for thousands of law enforcement officers across the country.

The group claims the 10 gigabytes of stolen data includes hundreds of police academy training files, the names of "snitches" who provided anonymous crime tips to police, jail inmate databases and lists of active warrants.


It is not clear whether any personal information was stolen from officers in the St. Louis area.

The website for the Missouri Sheriff's Association has reportedly been down since last week. The professional organization is known for lobbying lawmakers in Jefferson City, awarding college scholarships and honoring deputies statewide for heroic actions while on duty.

The sheriff's association would appear to have little or nothing to do with the shadowy online battles between groups of hackers and their online targets.

Mick Covington, executive director of the sheriff's association, referred questions Wednesday to Brooks-Jeffery Marketing Inc., which hosts the sheriff association's website. A spokeswoman there declined comment.

Rebecca Wu, a spokeswoman at the FBI's St. Louis office, said the FBI is aware of the attacks but would not comment further.

According to an internet posting by someone claiming to be associated with AntiSec, the attacks were retaliation after recent FBI arrests of members of another activist online group called Anonymous.

AntiSec demanded charges be dismissed against them.

"To law enforcement: your bogus trumped-up charges against the Anonymous paypal LOIC attacks will not stick, nor will your intimidation tactics stop us from exposing your corruption," AntiSec's posting says. "While many of the recent 'Anonymous' arrestees are completely innocent, there is no such thing as an innocent cop, and we will act accordingly." AntiSec has posted some data to a website and said it plans to release more information soon.

"In our fight for a world free from police, prisons and politicians, we will continue to expose their corruption and destroy their systems," AntiSec's posting says. "Remember there are more of us than there are of them, and they can never stop us all." Joel Currier covers breaking news for STLtoday.com and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

To see more of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stltoday.com. Copyright (c) 2011, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com.

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