NJ Democratic Mayor and son arrested for political hacking and intimidation
A New Jersey mayor and his son were arrested Thursday by the FBI for allegedly hacking into an email account and website tied to a recall effort against the mayor— and then intimidating those associated with the site.
The Democratic mayor of West New York, Felix Roque, 55, and his son, 22 year old Joseph Roque stand accused of accessing and taking down the site because it was critical of the mayor and called for his recall
After the site, RecallRoque.com was taken down, Roque is alleged to have personally threatened or intimidated persons involved with the site. saying among other things, that the page had been taken down by “high government officials and that everyone would pay for getting involved against Mayor Roque.” He threatened to refer one to the Internal Revenue Service for an audit, according to the criminal complaint. Roque also allegedly threatened that he had a friend on the CIA: “A friend of mine. he works in the — I can’t tell you — three letters — CIA. You know. That’s how I get information. So what I’m doing is not very kosher.”
U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey, Paul J. Fishman said, “In this case, the elected leader of West New York and his son allegedly hacked into computers to intimidate constituents who were simply using the Internet to exercise their constitutional rights to criticize the government.”
The Roques are charged with gaining unauthorized access to computers in furtherance of causing damage to protected computers; causing damage to protected computers; and conspiracy to commit those crimes.
Felix and Joseph Roque appeared in shackles in federal court in Newark yesterday, where a judge told them that they could face up to 11 years in prison and $600,000 in fines. They were released on $100,000 bond each.
Anonymous/Cabin Cr3w member, @It’sKahuna, arrested
John Anthony Borrell III, aka @It’sKahuna on Twitter, was arrested by the FBI and charged with two counts of computer intrusion in violation of 18 U.S.C.§1030(a)(5)(A).
These charges concerned hacking a Utah Police Chiefs’ website as well as the website of the Salt Lake City Police Department in January 2012.
Borrell, 21, was allegedly part of “Cabin Cr3w”, a hacker sub group of Anonymous which has been responsible for the online attacking of law enforcement agencies, sometimes in reaction to various Occupy related police confrontations.
Police were able to link Borrell through connections to work and neighbors’ IP addresses. They also were able to obtain information from Twitter which included his picture sent to another person in anonymous.
Borrell is just one of many recent Anonymous arrests. Recent arrests included “Sabu”(Hector Monsegur), who became an informant for the FBI, and “wormer”(Higinio Ochoa)(who was also a member of the “Cabin Cr3w”).
Borrell is also noted in the FBI complaint as offering to become an informant for them.
See full indictment and complaint here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/89670544/Indictment-and-Complaint-against-Anonymous-hacker
Borell was arrested March 20 and has been detained in Ohio. Each count carries up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Authorities in early February had said the hackers who attacked the Salt Lake City Police Department website gained access to citizen complaints about drugs and other crimes, including phone numbers, addresses and other personal data of informants.
The police website was just recently restored after additional security measures were added.
Anonymous was also involved in an attack on the Boston police in retaliation for “police brutality at OWS,” an apparent reference to the Occupy Wall Street movement. The message also promised “there is plenty more mayhem to deliver.”
HT to @TomRyanBlog for indictment/complaint.
Anonymous attacks Chinese and British websites
Over the Easter weekend, Anonymous is alleged to have attacked British and Chinese websites.
500 Chinese websites were defaced.and British government websites were also hit. The Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Number 10 Downing Street sites were disrupted on Saturday night by denial of service attacks, which flooded the websites with more traffic than they could handle.
Anonymous described the reasons for the attacks as in protest of ACTA and against the UK-US extradition treaty. Said treaty may result in British hackers being extradited to the US for their alleged crimes.
Anonymous claims they will continue attacks each weekend on British sites.
See more at http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f3384904-8186-11e1-b39c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1rjIzH9jJ
Massive data breach in Utah: Hackers steal hundreds of thousands of Social Security numbers
SALT LAKE CITY – Health officials now believe a total of nearly 900,000 people have had their personal data stolen.
The information includes Social Security numbers, health department spokesman Tom Huduchko said at a news conference. Some files also contained information needed to verify Medicaid coverage, as well as names, addresses or other personal information, he added.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/10/hackers-steal-hundreds-thousands-social-security-numbers/#ixzz1regUWc4f
Grandpa, patriot who goes by ‘The Raptor,’ claims credit for taking down Al Qaeda websites
Via Fox News: An American hacker, who calls himself “The Raptor” and claims to be a grandfather waging his own war on terror, is taking credit for a series of takedowns of online forums used by Al Qaeda sympathizers.
Calling himself a patriot acting on behalf of U.S. troops serving overseas, The Raptor claims to be behind last month’s attack on Al Qaeda’s main online forum, Shamukh Islamic Network, and a handful of other sites and forums, including Ansar al-Mujahideen, where jihadists gather online to issue threats and exhort one another to acts of terror. The sites went down on March 22, and most remained dark for nearly two weeks. As the websites stayed offline, The Raptor taunted his targets on Twitter, daring them to “bring it.”
