Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- A hacking collective known as Anonymous broke into the Salt lake City Police Department website Tuesday evening and was apparently able to access the personal information of those who had registered with the site.
That information includes "phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, other personal information, and details about suspicious activity from a variety of sources," including citizen complaints regarding drug crimes.
Wednesday, an email was sent out to users of the site urging them to change their email passwords immediately because the group may have access to it as a result of the hack. The SLCPD website is currently down.
SLCPD said in the email that it is "working diligently to find a solution so it may continue its public safety partnership with citizens."
Tuesday, Salt Lake Police Sgt. Shawn Josephson said the only information that appeared compromised was names and email addresses, but the hack now seems to be more extensive.
One of the hackers tweeted directly at the Salt Lake City Police Department Wednesday night. The tweet from "@ItsKahuna" said, "Trust me @slcpd you wont stop us. All hell cant stop us now. So a bit of advice to police. Expect us."
The hackers said they were able to steal thousands of reports before the site was pulled down. But they wrote on one website "we are not in the business of hurting innocent people."
The 'hacktivists' said that it targeted SLCPD because officers would be the "foot soldiers" for state Sen. Karen Mayne's anti-graffiti bill should it pass. The bill, SB107 would criminalize the possession "any instrument, tool or device that is commonly used to make graffiti with the intent to deface the property of another," according to the bill.
"If all the senator has to offer is a policy that will lead to self-righteous escalation of enforcement, consider this our deterrent," Anonymous said in a statement.
Senator Mayne said only that the fate of the bill was in the hands of the Utah Legislature.
The group also claimed an attack on the website of the Utah Association of Police Chiefs on Jan. 20 protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills, as well the shutdown of the website Megaupload.
----
Written with contributions from Shara Park.
