14 DAY TRIAL // Hackers have compromised the website of the BART Police and leaked the personal information of around one hundred officers, including their plaintext passwords.
The data was dumped on Pastebin under the title "OPBART, Yet another success." This would suggest the attack was part of Anonymous' Operation BART, however, not all members of the hacktivist collective are convinced of this.
"The leak today of BART officer data could be the work sanctioned by those who truly support anonymous, or agent provocateurs. Stay skeptical," AnonyOps tweeted.
"People who are against anonymous know they can do this under the name 'anonymous' and never be questioned. This is anonymous, defined," it added.
Anonymous launched OpBART last week after the Bay Area Rapid Transit authorities cut cellphone service in seven stations in order to thwart a protest related to BART Police fatally shooting a violent passenger in July.
The decision, which was compared to that of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak during the Egyptian protests earlier this year, was heavily criticized by civil rights watchdogs.
It's true that the nature of Anonymous as a movement with no leaders and where everyone can do what they want makes it hard to determine the real motive of the attackers.
However, the hacktivist collective has previously leaked the personal information of over 2,400 commuters stolen from the myBART website, so the dumping of sensitive data is part of its M.O.
The BART Police website was shut down following the security breach. "We condemn this latest attack on the working men and women of BART," the BART authorities said.
"We are deeply concerned about the safety and security of our employees and their families. We stand behind them and our customers who were the subject of an earlier attack. We are deeply troubled by these actions," they added.