Network Security, Network Security, Threat Management, Vulnerability Management

Anonymous leaks cybercrime investigator’s private emails

The hacktivist group Anonymous on Friday released 38,000 private emails belonging to a retired California Department of Justice (DoJ) cybercrime investigator as revenge for police crackdowns against the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The messages, which appear to belong to Fred Baclagan, a retired special agent supervisor at the California DoJ, reveal detailed information about computer forensic techniques and investigation protocols, the group said in a notice posted to Pastebin. Anonymous also said it leaked several dozen of Baclagan's voicemails and SMS text message logs, along with his personal phone number and address.

Included along the leaked messages are the archive of a private discussion list used by members of the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS), a nonprofit information-sharing organization for computer forensic professionals within law enforcement. The archive purportedly dates from 2005 to 2011 and contains information about methods used to gather electronic evidence, conduct investigations and make arrests.

The group also also made public what it deems "embarrassing" personal information belonging to Baclagan, such as "angry voicemails from his estranged wives and ex-girlfriends" and conversations with women who responded to Craigslist personal ads he apparently created.

“The information in these emails will prove essential to those who want to protect themselves from the techniques and procedures cybercrime investigators use to build cases,” Anonymous said.

SCMagazineUS.com could not reach Baclagan via phone or email on Monday.

The hack was part of an ongoing Anonymous venture dubbed AntiSec, which calls for hackers to expose government and corporate wrongdoings, and appeared to be motivated by police actions against Occupy Wall Street protestors.

“You want to keep mass arresting and brutalizing the 99 percent?” the group wrote. “We'll have to keep owning your boxes and torrenting your mail spools, plastering your personal information all over teh [sic] internets.”

Anonymous has been a key supporter of the Occupy movements since Sept. 17, when protesters began camping at a park in Lower Manhattan. In late October, the group launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the Oakland Police Department's website in protest of a violent reaction from police after they attempted to clear protesters from a park in the northern California city.

More recently, the group threatened the city of Toronto with a similar response if police there evicted occupiers from a local park.

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