Brazilian Hackers Release Contents of Police Email and Phone Interceptions

A group of Brazilian hackers calling themselves LulzSec Brazil, after the infamous international hacking outfit, has released the transcripts of email and phone interceptions performed by the Federal Police.

Judging by the directory tree, the data represents the contents of a 8GB Kingston USB memory stick most likely belonging to a police officer. It contains police courses, but more importantly, confidential files obtained during a police investigation.

The material is related to a four-year high-profile investigation into the misuse of public funds, corruption and money laundering, which is known as Operation Satiagraha.

The investigation concluded in 2008 with the arrest of several bankers, bank directors and investors, including influential financier Daniel Valente Dantas.

Dantas was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in November 2008 for attempting to bribe a police officer. His name was in the news last year when the FBI returned two of his hard drives back to the Brazilian authorities after failing to decrypt the data on them.

The information leaked by the Brazilian hackers is quite extensive and includes many surveillance photos, recordings of intercepted phone calls and email transcripts. One directory name suggests that even the phone of a journalist was tapped.

The leak comes days after Antisec hackers dumped 10GB-worth of confidential police information stolen from a server housing 77 US law enforcement websites.

This is not the first time when Brazilian hackers associated with Anonymous and its Antisec campaign are leaking official data. Information stolen from Brazilian government websites was included in a larger data dump back in June.

Law enforcement agencies in neighboring countries are dealing with a similar threat. A couple of weeks ago hackers leaked data stolen from the Colombian National Police. The hacktivist group and its affiliates have declared war against law enforcement agencies after a crackdown against their supporters in US and Europe.