LulzSec exposes Arizona law enforcement documents
Connecting state and local government leaders
The hacker group releases hundreds of e-mails, intell bulletins, images and other files in what it says is a protest of the state's immigration laws.
This story has been updated from its original form to include a reference to LulzSec's announcement that it is disbanding.
The hacker group Lulz Security has released the first — and, perhaps, last — batch of documents from its announced Operation Anti-Security, a collection of e-mails, intelligence bulletins, images and other files taken from Arizona law enforcement agencies. LulzSec, under investigation from the FBI and other agencies and under fire from other hackers, announced June 25 that it was disbanding, The Associated Press reported.
The group, which announced the Arizona hack June 24 on its Twitter feed and posted the documents on Pirate Bay, said the attack was in protest of Arizona’s immigration laws.
“We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona,” LulzSec said in a release on its website.
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Arizona SB 1070, the nation’s strictest anti-illegal immigration law, was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer in April 2010, but its most controversial provisions have been held up by court challenges.
The group posted more than 700 documents mostly related to border patrol and anti-terrorism activities, classified variously as "law enforcement sensitive," "not for public distribution" and "for official use only." LulzSec said the files also describe “the use of informants to infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups and protest movements.”
The Arizona Department of Public Safety has confirmed the hack.
LulzSec has drawn attention in recent months with attacks on high-profile websites such as those of the CIA and U.S. Senate, entertainment giants Sony and Nintendo, the British equivalent of the FBI, Fox, PBS and the government of Brazil.
On June 19, it announced Operation Anti-Security with the hacker group Anonymous, calling on hackers to attack government websites and leak classified information.
A day later, British police working with the FBI arrested a 19-year-old man and later charged him with involvement in two attacks LulzSec has claimed, one on the CIA website and another on the British Serious Organized Crime Agency website.