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SALT LAKE CITY -- The Salt Lake City Police Department website is still down today after being hacked on Tuesday night. Police are still trying to figure out exactly what was compromised.
The hacking group calling themselves Anonymous said it got all kinds of information from the SLCPD, including phone numbers, addresses, email addresses and potentially more.
A person claiming to be a part of the group has been interacting with Salt Lake media through Twitter and said that the hack gave Anonymous information on drug operations, sales suppliers, license plate numbers and more.
Salt Lake Police said this person on Twitter is likely linked somehow to the group that got into their website.
"Somehow they are affiliated they're in the know," said Sgt. Shawn Josephson of SLCPD. "As far as what their involvement is, we're not sure at this point, but we are definitely keeping those details in mind and following those same things that you are receiving."
Officials said all the information was from what people submitted through tip forms on the website.
Other compromised information includes names and numbers of people who wanted to know more about job openings at the police department, but this did not include full resumes.
- 643 Narcotic operation-related documents
- 2042 job application documents
- 77 police contact requests
- 228 traffic-related documents
- numerous documents containing subscription information
Lake police said the hack doesn't prevent them in any way from doing their job, but it does harm their relationship with the public through online tips. SLCPD won't put the website back up until they can make sure it is secure.
Several local journalists chatted with a supposed member of the Anonymous involved in the hack over Twitter, including KSL's Shara Park. While it is not yet possible to say whether the person's claims are true, the hacker provided files that were stolen from Salt Lake Police - one of which is an unpublished complaint submitted by a citizen.
In a private chat room under the name "Kahuna," the hacker explained why he stole thousands of documents from the Salt Lake City Police Department's website.
"Daily we watch cops beat people, arrest them without cause, and this is a message that we are watching and that we see this as unlawful," he wrote. "Kahuna" referred to SB107, a bill that would criminalize the possession of any instrument, tool or device used to make with the intent of defacing another's property. He wrote that if the bill passes, he will target the "foot soldiers" that enforce it, and said he would release information about the police officers involved with this, knowing that it would put them at risk.
The bill failed in the senate Thursday.
Essentially, "Kahuna" was able to hack their site and through that, gained admin logins and passwords. From there he was able to access an internal server and get more private information from the department.
"Kahuna" said he is the only person with a copy of all the stolen information and will not release it.
"Innocent civilians reporting crimes are not my target," he wrote.
His message for those citizens who feel their information is in danger he writes, "Nothing in this is a target to you, we are not out to cause you any harm nor would we ever do so..."
Nevertheless, to the police he wrote, "If this bill continues and passes and causes a single arrest of intent, this won't be the only time they hear from us, and they better expect us."
The hacker says Salt Lake City Police are underplaying just how much sensitive and compromising information he was able to get.
