Hackers breach FBI partner’s site

June 06, 2011|Associated Press

LONDON — Nearly 180 passwords belonging to members of an Atlanta-based FBI partner organization have been stolen and leaked to the Internet, the group confirmed yesterday.

The logins belonged to the local chapter of InfraGard, a public-private partnership devoted to sharing information about threats to US physical and Internet infrastructure, the chapter’s president said.

“Someone did compromise the website,’’ Paul Farley, president of the InfraGard Atlanta Members Alliance, said in an e-mail exchange. “We do not at this time know how the attack occurred or the method used to reveal the passwords.’’

Copies of the passwords — which appear to include users from the US Army, cybersecurity organizations, and major communications companies — were posted to the Internet by online hacking collective Lulz Security, which has claimed credit for a string of attacks in the past week.

In a statement, Lulz Security also claimed to have used one of the passwords to steal nearly 1,000 work and personal e-mails from the chief executive of Wilmington, Del.,-based Unveillance. Lulz Security claimed it was acting in response to a recent report that the Pentagon was considering whether to classify some cyberattacks as acts of war.

The FBI said yesterday steps were being taken to mitigate the damage.

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