7 Mar 2016

ISIS hackers threaten 55 New Jersey police officers by releasing home addresses, phone numbers and working locations

ISIS hackers have threatened 55 New Jersey police officers by releasing their names, addresses, telephone numbers and working locations online.
The Caliphate Cyber Army (CCA), an ISIS-affiliated group of hackers that largely focuses on defacing websites and spreading propaganda, released an Excel spreadsheet containing the details of 55 New Jersey Transit Authority police Wednesday. 
The Daily Mail understands that the information — which lists the details of employees from a probationary police officer up to a number of captains — was obtained by hackers on February 26 from a uniform laundering list.
Attack: On Wednesday the Caliphate Cyber Army (CCA) announced it had uploaded the 'personal information' of New Jersey Transit Authority police officers. Info included phone numbers and home addresses
Attack: On Wednesday the Caliphate Cyber Army (CCA) announced it had uploaded the 'personal information' of New Jersey Transit Authority police officers. Info included phone numbers and home addresses
Download: The site was placed on an Arabic-language download site (pictured). The data apparently came from a police uniform laundering list, and had information on officers up to the rank of captain
Many of the addresses associated with the officers are station houses and headquarters, but when put into Google Street View, many others show residential homes. Telephone numbers include officers' cellphones.
Other data included in the spreadsheet comprises officers' ranks, employee numbers and working locations.
The file was uploaded to an Arabic-language file sharing site on Wednesday. By Saturday morning it had been downloaded 300 times. 
The CCA announced the upload on secure messaging service Telegram, describing it as 'Personal information of the US police stations including Leaders and officers.'
In a statement, The New Jersey Transit Authority said: 'The NJ Transit Information System was not compromised, however some information was breached from an outside vendor.
'The New Jersey Transit police are working the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI on this matter.'
It declined to make any further comments.
Mistake: The CCA also said that it had hacked Google, and posted up this image on its Telegram account. However it had really hacked the unrelated Indian website Add Google Online
Mistake: The CCA also said that it had hacked Google, and posted up this image on its Telegram account. However it had really hacked the unrelated Indian website Add Google Online
The CCA is in the middle of a sustained campaign of hacking and website defacement, according to monitoring by Site Intelligence Group. Its operations have been ongoing since at least last year.
It has hacked sites from the US, the UK, Russia, France and other countries associated with anti-ISIS sentiment. 
It also claimed to have hacked 54,000 Twitter accounts and posted the phone numbers of the heads of the CIA and FBI in November last year.
However, most of its hacking attempts focus on small, easily broken websites, including the Utah-based family-owned food business Alison's Pantry and a Spanish weighing scale company called Escali.
And they were roundly mocked in the media on Thursday after claiming to have hacked Google, when it emerged that they had in fact hacked the unrelated Indian website Add Google Online. 
The website responded with the message 'Eat this Google,' the New York Post reported, although the Add Google Online was down at the time of writing.
Other minor targets included a small solar energy company in England, a Japanese dance instructor and a laminate flooring firm based in Wales, Newsweek reported.