Last update: 3:24 PM, to add quotes from BART police
@OpBART, the twitter account associated with a hacker group protesting BART’s decision to cut off cell phone service to passengers during a protest last week, has announced the second in a series of successful breaches of personal information of users of a BART-related site.
In a tweet posted Wednesday morning, OpBART announced “Leaked personal data, emails and passwords for 102 #BART police officers,” all of whom appear to be users of the BART Police Officers’ Association website. Update 11:30 AM: It appears that the site has been taken offline.
This is the second such breach attributed by some to the hacker group Anonymous: on Sunday, 55,000 members of the MyBart.org website were notified of a data breach in which personal details of 2,400 users were stolen and posted to the Internet.
The hacker protest group “Anonymous” reportedly took credit for that attack, in which the Anonymous logo was posted to the MyBART homepage. The group also posted links to the stolen user data on a Twitter account associated with the group. It also posted contact information for BART employees on one website said to be run by the group, encouraging its members to flood them with emails and phone calls.
It’s worth noting that Anonymous appears not to be united in their hacking front — while one member recently gave an interview to Democracy Now regarding his participation in Sunday’s hack, another told the SF Examiner “The group that conducted the hacking, people need to know that it was NOT part of the plan, was/is NOT condoned by the majority of Anonymous, and was done IN SECRET.”
Regarding today’s attack, a tweet from an account frequently attributed to Anonymous, @AnonyOps, said “The leak today of BART officer data could be the work sanctioned by those who truly support anonymous, or agent provocateurs. Stay skeptical.”
An earlier tweet from the same account posted today read “FYI, No one claimed responsibility for the hack. Some random joe joined a channel and released the data to the press.”
Yet another twitter account attributed to Anonymous, @YourAnonNews, simply announced the breach at around 11 AM today.
The MyBart website remains down while the agency works to secure it with the help of federal officials.
“We’ve been working on this since Friday,” BART spokesperson Jim Allison said Sunday. “We’ve done everything we could to secure the site.”
Another website not associated with BART, Californiaavoid.org was also hacked Sunday, with the logo of Anonymous and fake news stories were added to it containing racial slurs.
California AVOID is a state-sponsored partnership of law enforcement organizations to prevent drunk driving.
Calls to multiple BART spokespeople regarding today’s breach were not responded to at publication time. Update 12:38 PM: BART spokesperson Jim Allison called to let us know that BART has released a statement on the breach. In its entirety, it reads:
“We condemn this latest attack on the working men and women of BART. We are deeply concerned about the safety and security of our employees and their families. We stand behind them and our customers who were the subject of an earlier attack. We are deeply troubled by these actions.” –Sherwood Wakeman, Interim General Manager
Allison could not provide any information other than the statement at this time.
BART Deputy Police Chief Ben Farrow also condemned the data breach, saying that the websites for MyBart.org and the police union are both run by outside vendors, not by BART.
Farrow said BART police officers are concerned that the information that has been released could jeopardize the safety of their family members.
“BART police officers are used to working in dangerous situations, but they aren’t used to having their family members exposed to danger,” he said.
Officers “are naturally unhappy about it,” Farrow said.
Farrow said the cyber attacks seem to be part of “an ongoing attack on everyone” at BART and “are getting silly at this point.”
Farrow said he thinks the cyber attacks are being carried out “in a cowardly manner” and people who are upset with BART’s decision to temporarily suspend cellphone service should speak out at BART board meetings.
Cyber attacks “are absolutely the wrong way” to protest BART’s policies, he said.
Farrow said the FBI is already investigating the cyber attack on the MyBART.org website and will now expand its investigation to include the breach of the police union’s website.
BART spokesman Jim Allison said the transit agency has sent information to its employees about how to protect themselves from cyber attacks.
Another protest is reportedly planned for Monday, August 22. According to a tweet from the @OpBART account linking to this page, “NEXT ROUND OF PROTESTS. MONDAY AUG. 22ND 5PM OUTSIDE THE CIVIC CENTER STATION.”
Blog talk radio broadcaster and opinionated non-hactivist @CrappyTires said on his show today “We’ll be meeting at 5 (PM Monday) outside Civic Center station…I’d like to try and take the (BART) offices — I’d like to go to Linton’s office” (referring to BART spokesperson Linton Johnson, who reportedly came up with the cell block idea).
Elsewhere: Anonymous Hacks BART Police Website, Releases Personal Information of 100 Officers [Weekly]
Anonymous hacks BART police officer information, posts it online [Ex]
Database With BART Police Names Hacked [BC]
Hacker Group Anonymous Publishes Personal Info of BART Police; BART Deputy Chief Says Police Officers Association Hacked [KQED]
Hackers post BART cops’ personal information [Chron]
BART Hacked Again; Police Officer Data Released [CBS5]
Hackers gain access to transit police union site [AP via Ex]
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