UPDATED 11:42 EDT / SEPTEMBER 02 2011

NEWS

Anonymous Strikes Back: The Texan Sheriff HD Edition

Members of the hactivist collective, Anonymous, have been busy little chrome rats chewing on the insulation of the walls of the Internet and recently they released a data dump of law enforcement e-mails lining their nest. In a Pastebin release entitled with the hashtag #TexasTakedownThursday, which also cites #AntiSec and #FreeTopiary, the hack manifesto links to a data dump, and a bunch of insight into what was found in the stolen e-mails.

Following the exploits of Anonymous versus law enforcement—specifically sheriffs—this is the third giant sheriff takedown we’ve seen happen. The last one included 10GB from Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Mississippi law enforcement offices and previous to that it was LulzSec dumping a bunch of stolen documents and e-mails from AZDPS. The AZDPS hack, like the current dump, also got tagged with the #ChingaLaMigra tag. Ostensively these attacks are a backlash from the hacker community against law enforcement for high profile hunts of hackers from Anonymous, LulzSec, AntiSec, and other movements who had been involved in DDoS attacks and the media-frenzy notice of LulzSec’s 50 day rampage and data dumps.

Not to mention the calls for the release of accused LulzSec spokesperson Jake Davis “Topiary.”

Meanwhile, the e-mails and other documents captured and dumped by Anonymous onto the web contain a great deal of damning dialogue between the sheriffs (which apparently they believed to be secret.) The narrative unraveling from the memos, e-mails, and discussions seems to be one that exposes a certain amount of petty corruption, contempt of the public, and racism de jour.

Sam Biddle over at Gizmodo gives his thoughts on what’s contained in the dump, one of the e-mails which also has its own Pastebin link is actually entitled “Re: Stupid Bitch” where the author goes on to speak about several police-involved incidents that didn’t go so well for the suspects:

That stupid bitch who started that stolen car chase at Yale and 610 got what she deserved (I’ll bet she was fat and black too).  Same with that pervert that got shot by the county. Fuck that guy, see ya.  That all sounds like good police work to me.  Those folks got the criminal cure.  It’s guaranteed, they will never commit a crime again.

A number of the e-mails in the dump are boring, hum-de-dum style routine discussion of policing efforts, and even one involves a notice that someone had been stealing toilet paper. Overall, the e-mails taken from the file with the “bitch” comment seem to have that as its only one. Reports from Anonymous, however, suggest that more of the e-mails contain further elements of racism and bad behavior on the part of the correspondents.


Along with breaking into their e-mail system and releasing this slew of documents, the Anonymous subcell also claims to have hacked into and defaced the texaspolicechiefs.org website—which as of this writing is currently down. According to reports they defaced it and took it down for 3 hours on Tuesday, it was subsequently fixed, and then defaced again on Thursday. Apparently they fixed the site but didn’t clean out the back doors, according to Anonymous.

Police in the U.K.also arrested two more young men in connection with DDoS attacks who may be possible LulzSec suspects.

“Scotland Yard said the arrests were part of a continuing investigation in collaboration with the FBI, South Yorkshire Police and other law enforcement bodies, into activities of Anonymous and LulzSec, especially in connection with suspected offences under the cover of online identity ‘Kayla’.”

This arrest happened only a week after another arrest and charges against a Peter David Gibson, 22, from Hartlepool in relation to similar offenses.


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