Breach, Threat Management, Data Security, Threat Management, Vulnerability Management

Hacktivist hits Minnesota gov databases to protest Philando Castile verdict

A hacktivist Sunday breached Minnesota government databases and stole 1,400 email credentials, along with other information, to Protest the Philando Castile verdict.

On June 16, a jury acquitted the Minnesota police officer charged with manslaughter for killing Castile during a traffic stop prompting police brutality protests across the nation.

The stolen credentials reportedly give access to internal databases from the server admin.state.mn.us, which connects to other databases of the sites mn.state.us and mn.gov, according to Vice's Motherboard.

"I thought I had to do something against what I found to be unjust," a hacker by the moniker Vigilance told the publication. "This was a failure of justice. And his family won't get the satisfaction of knowing the one who killed Philando is rightly punished. An innocent man died. And a guilty one lives freely."

The hacker stole the  information from several sources and managed to obtain a contact list of people who appear to be outside contractors, users of a scientific forum maintained by the Minnesota IT services but unaffiliated with the government, and the email addresses of what appear to be Minnesota IT administrators.

All of the stolen passwords are hashed and as of Tuesday Vigilance wasn't able to crack any of the passwords but did claim he could impersonate state government officials or a state employee with the stolen data, that he also has knowledge of an unpatched vulnerability in the state's network, and in a June 18 tweet that he hacked the University of Minnesota Moorhead.

The Minnesota government's IT services confirmed the attack. “Minnesota IT Services is aware of this attack and is investigating the incident,” a spokesperson told SC Media. “Minnesota IT Services' security forensics team will share any relevant information with law enforcement for review for potential criminal activity.”

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