BlueLeaks: Anonymous Group Leaks a ‘Megatrove’ of Sensitive Documents from 200 Police Departments

ABC

While a pandemic rages all over the world, the United States is dealing with another major issue all throughout the country. Riots and protests have broken out after the horrible deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Andres Guardado, Rayshard Brooks and many others, which has left citizens angry over racism and bigotry, and moreover, unfair and unjust police brutality.

To make matters worse, rumor has it that hacktivist group Anonymous has decided to publish thousands of online files which were reportedly leaked from “over 200 federal and local law enforcement offices across the country.”


The data dump which has been dubbed as “BlueLeaks” released a ton of documents that include a number of police officer’s personal information, internal memos and emails, and other important info not meant for prying eyes. According to wired.com, the “megatrove” of information found by Anonymous was actually released by DDoSecrets (Distributed Denial of Secrets) on June 19, Friday. The significance of the date is that the holiday Juneteenth is celebrated on that day, which was when the United States abolished slavery back in 1865.

According to the cofounder of DDOSecrets, Emma Best, “It’s the largest published hack of American law enforcement agencies. It provides the closest inside look at the state, local, and federal agencies tasked with protecting the public, including [the} government response to COVID and the BLM (Black Lives Matter) protests.”

Anonymous usually concentrates its “attacks” on those that are known to abuse or misuse their power. But given just how shrouded they are in mystery, there is no way to truly know “the group’s ideology or its size – beyond its tagline, “we are legion.”

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After the release of these highly confidential documents, DDOSecrets supporters, protestors and Anonymous users sifted through the files, finding a treasure trove of information about how the police have been tracking protestors, as well as  discussions about the anti-fascist group, Antifa.

Some even mentioned that the files held major bias already, explaining how the police described the well-known and notorious white supremacist, Richard Spencer, as “anti-Antifa” instead of saying that “Antifa opposes neo-fascist groups like those Spencer and his supporters belong to.”

One particular unclassified FBI memo sent to the local police departments sometime in late May said that “law enforcement supporters’ safety” after finding a couple of tweets that discusses talks of destroying “Blue Lives Matter” merch. Meanwhile, an internal memo was also released that talked about how police departments can determine potential threats due to protestors “clothing, signs, and cars.”

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Best also shared, “The underlying attitudes of law enforcement  is one of the things I think BlueLeaks documents really well. I’ve seen a few comments about it being unlikely to uncover gross police misconduct, but I think those somewhat miss the point or at least equate police misconduct solely with illegal behavior. Part of what a lot of the current protests are about is what police do and have done legally.”


To make matters worse, the fault of the “leak” is said to be with Houston-based service provider Netsential, which is what state law-enforcement agencies use all throughout the U.S. According to security reporter Brian Krebs, the hackers managed to compromise the company’s servers in order to steal the files needed at the company’s fusion centers which is used by the police to share information between departments.

Despite the fact that it was leaking sensitive information, DDOSecrets still “did their best to remove any information sort of sensitive data” especially when it comes to victims of crime and children, amongst other things.

“Due to the size of the dataset, we probably missed things. I wish we could have done more, but I’m pleased with what we did and that we continue to learn,” Best explained. She also stressed, “The potential of the data, especially in the long run and when correlated with other datasets, outweighs any downsides to allowing the public to examine it.”

“The public has an interest in the identities of public servants,” she added.

 

 

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