Hackers hit US law-enforcement sites

Aug 9, 2011, 9:36 GMT

San Francisco - Claiming revenge against a recent spate of arrests, hackers have broken into the websites of 70 US law enforcement agencies and released a trove of 10 gigabytes of confidential data.

The intrusion was revealed by hackers of the LulzSec and Anonymous groups over the weekend.

It brought down dozens of local police and sheriff's web sites and provided details of 'hundreds of private email spools, password information, address and social security numbers, credit card numbers, snitch information, training files and more,' LulzSec said in a release announcing the cyberattacks.

LulzSec and Anonymous united earlier this summer to conduct anti-government hacking in an operation known as AntiSec, which is being investigated by the FBI.

'We hope that not only will dropping this info demonstrate the inherently corrupt nature of law enforcement using their own words, as well as result in possibly humiliation, firings, and possible charges against several officers, but that it will also disrupt and sabotage their ability to communicate and terrorize communities,' wrote AntiSec in a release statement.