California union latest Anonymous police victim

Anonymous hackers affiliated with the group's "AntiSec" initiative stuck again over the New Year's weekend, this time dumping private data they stole by breaking into the website belonging to the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) union.

The hacktivists were driven by a number of reasons, they said in an online dispatch, including the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer three years earlier and the attempted repression by authorities of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The intruders made off with 2,519 first and last names, usernames, email addresses and clear-text passwords, according to DataBreaches.net. They also absconded with credit card details -- apparently unencrypted -- belonging to users who made purchases at the site's gift shop.

According to reports, the hack happened a couple of months ago, as some victims were already notified. The booty also contained email messages.

"We knew they did hack our website in November and pulled out various emails and information they could get," CSLEA President Alan Barcelona told News 10, an ABC news affiliate serving Sacramento. "And so we knew they were going to be posting things."

Anonymous has targeted a number of police organizations in the past, including departments in Boston, Oakland, Calif., Birmingham, Ala. TexasPoliceChiefs.org, and various sheriffs associations.

The website for CSLEA remains offline, and a representative could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.