Hackers Post Personal Info of Thousands of Federal Agents, Police Officers

Hackers Post Personal Info of Thousands of Federal Agents, Police Officers

 

(Getty Images)

TechCrunch is reporting that hackers breached several FBI-affiliated websites and posted their contents on the web. Some of the files contained the personal information of thousands of federal agents and local police officers.

The hackers breached three sites associated with the FBI National Academy Association, a coalition of different chapters across the U.S. promoting federal and law enforcement leadership and training located at the FBI training academy in Quantico, VA. The hackers exploited flaws on at least three of the organization’s chapter websites — which we’re not naming — and downloaded the contents of each web server.

The hackers then put the data up for download on their own website, which we’re also not naming nor linking to given the sensitivity of the data.

The hackers accessed and posted "a mix of personal and government email addresses, job titles, phone numbers and their postal addresses." Needless to say, the deliberate targeting of law enforcement in this age of threats and intimidation puts many people in danger.

You want cold? Here's one of the hackers TechCrunch talked to:

TechCrunch spoke to one of the hackers, who didn’t identify his or her name, through an encrypted chat late Friday.

“We hacked more than 1,000 sites,” said the hacker. “Now we are structuring all the data, and soon they will be sold. I think something else will publish from the list of hacked government sites.” We asked if the hacker was worried that the files they put up for download would put federal agents and law enforcement at risk. “Probably, yes,” the hacker said.

Why did they do it? "Experience and money," said the hacker.

You can imagine some of the clients these bozos will attract: organized crime, drug cartels, human traffickers -- the scum of the earth will get an early Christmas present.

Many federal agents already take precautions in their daily lives, but this sort of thing puts their families in danger as well. No doubt it will force major changes in the lives of dozens of agents and police officers who may even be forced to move because of this breach.

Hackers are in an arms race with developers and security experts. As fast as the white hats can develop protections against intrusions, the black hats counter by finding ways to exploit the inevitable weaknesses. In this case, it was negligence that led to the hack.

Let's hope it doesn't cost anyone their life.