Anonymous hits Police websites in Boston and SLC

Attacks this week by hacker collective Anonymous appear to have taken the Boston and Salt Lake City police by surprise once more as they retaliate for police brutality at Occupy Wall Street weeks ago. Though it's not been immediately apparent why this second attack has come when it has, Anonymous does appear to have left a message on Boston Police news website BPDNews.com currently being redirected to their Facebook blast page instead. On that page they currently have a statement which speaks on how irritated they are that the site would be brought down when all it aims to do is bring safety information to fair citizens.

Anonymous also had a news tip pop up this morning on how they'd intercepted a phone call between Scottland Yard and the FBI, this racking them up another notch in their belt for impressive cuts in the hacking world against major targets. What we've got here is what Anonymous billed as "Anonymous hacks Boston Police website in retaliation for police brutality at OWS." The hack project in this case appears to also have resulted in personal information of confidential informants and tipsters was accessed, as as sensitive data surrounding citizen complaints about drug crimes.

"Statement from BPD regarding BPDNews.com hacking incident: The Boston Police Department is working diligently to restore the function of BPDNews.com, the department's public safety blog. It is unfortunate that someone would go to this extent to compromise BPDNews.com, a helpful and informative public safety resource utilized daily by community members seeking up-to-date news and information about important safety matters. Our skillful technical staff is focused on rectifying this issue. Detectives continue their investigation into individuals engaging in this type of disruptive and criminal activity." – Boston Police Department

What Anonymous is noting instead is that this attack comes in part because of what they called brutality against Occupy Boston, and part because of an anti-graffiti paraphernalia bill nearly passed in Boston state senate. This bill would have made it illegal not just to perform vandalism in the state, but to possess any instrument, tool, or device with intent of vandalizing – broadness will get you hit!