Hackers Expose Trump, Run License Plate Numbers for Friends, and Post ISIS ‘Kill List’ Detailing Cops
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Wilfredo Lee/AP
Just another week in ThreatWatch, our regularly updated index of noteworthy data breaches.
In case you missed our coverage this week in ThreatWatch, Nextgov’s regularly updated index of cyber breaches:
Hacktivists Expose Trump...Sort Of
After the hacker activist collective Anonymous threatened to declare "total war" on GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, it leaked two numbers. One is an alleged SSN and the other is The Donald's purported cell line.
Sure, there's a cache of details on the entrepreneur in the data dump, but the stash seems to be mostly public information: his birth date and birthplace (Trump birthers, anyone?), the main address for the Trump Organization, his agent, his legal representation, and the names of his parents, wife and kids.
"What should Trump do? Get a new cellphone number, as Sen. Lindsey Graham can attest to after Trump handed out *his* cellphone number last summer," USA Today says.
Denver Police Officers Consult Criminal Database for Dates, Other Personal Issues
An audit of the performance of the Denver Police and the Denver Sheriff Department found that one officer, for example, used the National Crime Information Center to run a man's license plate for a friend. The friend was going through a divorce and wanted to determine the identity of a man he believed his wife was having an affair with.
The spying spiraled out of control, possibly causing violence.
The ex-husband began driving by the other man’s house and threatening him. The ex-husband also found and contacted the man’s wife to tell her husband was having an affair. The ex-husband told the wife he knew their home address, showed her a picture of the man’s car, and asked her questions about the man to find out what gym he worked out at, what shift he worked, and where he spent his leisure time.
In another case, a Denver Police officer who was at a hospital investigating a reported sexual assault chatted up a female hospital employee who was not involved in the incident:
The female employee returned home to find a voicemail from the officer on her personal phone. She had not given the officer her phone number and was upset he had obtained it (she assumed) by improperly using law enforcement computer systems.
Pro-ISIS Hacktivists Release ‘Kill List’ of Minnesota Cops
A group of hackers who say they are affiliated with the Islamic State have posted a wanted list naming and detailing 36 policemen.
The list, published by the “Caliphate Cyber Army” on the Telegram messaging service, includes full names, home addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of all the men.
The content was discovered by Vocativ’s deep Web analysts.
ISIS has in the past released names and details of American servicemen at the end of execution videos, urging its followers to target the troops wherever they can.
It’s unclear how effective the hackers are. Another group calling itself “the sons of the Caliphate army” has also threatened Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey in retaliation for efforts to suspend ISIS-affiliated social media accounts.
According to the FBI, the supposed law enforcement targets are spread out across Minnesota and the Dakotas. St. Paul Police Department confirmed four of its officers are on the list and it is taking the necessary precautions to protect them.
Educational Site Code.org Accidentally Showed Volunteers’ Data to Marketers
The nonprofit website that teaches inquisitive minds of all ages to code has acknowledged there was a system bug that exposed helpers’ email addresses.
Code.org discovered and fixed the error March 11.
The organization learned of the hole when some of its volunteers started receiving unsolicited emails offering jobs. Those offers were sent by “a technical recruiting firm in Singapore.” Volunteers wondered how that firm had found their addresses.
The recruiting firm says it won't do it again and has promised to delete the email addresses harvested.
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