TechCrunch is reporting that the hacker group LulzSec — whose Twitter profile calls themselves “the world’s leaders in high-quality entertainment at your expense” — has leaked a stream of Arizona law enforcement data. The group has framed the leak as a gesture of retaliation against SB 1070, which the state legislature passed last year. Many people protested the law on the grounds that it required police officers to engage in racial profiling. The provisions are largely on hold pending U.S. Supreme Court review. The Arizona Republic has a team working on the story.
From the press release:
We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona.
The documents classified as “law enforcement sensitive”, “not for public distribution”, and “for official use only” are primarily related to border patrol and counter-terrorism operations and describe the use of informants to infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups, and protest movements.
Every week we plan on releasing more classified documents and embarassing personal details of military and law enforcement in an effort not just to reveal their racist and corrupt nature but to purposefully sabotage their efforts to terrorize communities fighting an unjust “war on drugs”.
Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors – the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world. See you again real soon! ;D
I’ve downloaded the files, and they appear—at least at first glance—legitimate, though all I’ve read so far are dispatches from supervisors working the Wallow Fire. Nothing incriminating there. Just a few phone numbers that at an earlier point in the reporting of the fire would have been helpful. I’ll keep you posted as I wallow in the docs.
Here’s the link to the torrent file if you’re interested in wallowing yourself.
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An interesting observation from one pertinent Department of Homeland Security document, though it’s hardly sensitive information:
Despite the rising tide of murders in Sonora, analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) data indicates that no widespread violence has spilled into Arizona; indeed, overall violent crime is down in Arizona. Homicide statistics from 2006 through 2009 show that homicides trended downward in Glendale, Mesa, Phoenix, and Tucson; remained flat in Nogales; and increased slightly in Peoria and Yuma. While some of these deaths may be drug-related, available information does not attribute any of these murders to Mexican drug-trafficking organizations.
Also, from a bit later in the same document, “Mexico: Sonora-based Threats to U.S. Border Security,” from August 2010:
Drug and alien smuggling from Sonora, along with drug-related violence, almost certainly will continue at current or even higher levels over the next several years. Attempts to counter corruption and professionalize police forces may eventually pay dividends, but improvements will require years of sustained effort.
And
The vast resources of the cartels—estimated by U.S. authorities at $18-38 billion a year—dwarf those of government entities, which are playing a catch-up game in improving technological tools and building effective institutions.
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My impression thus far is that the source of much of this information is the news media, Mexican and American.
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It’s interesting that there are at least a couple of documents warning officers about iPhone and Android apps that could be used in crime or used against them. Who knew you could use an iPhone as a digital scale?
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FoxNews.com is reporting an interesting dynamic—another hacker group trying to expose LulzSec, which also claimed responsibility for, among other things, the recent hacking of the PBS website.
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The LulzSec website is down.
