San Francisco's BART Hit by Anonymous, Prepares for More Attacks
San Francisco's BART Hit by Anonymous, Prepares for More Attacks
Posted 08/15/2011 at 8:41am
| by Paul Lilly
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The hacking group known as Anonymous turned its attention on San Francisco's mass transit system called BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) over the weekend, swiping and posting the names, home addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of more than 2,400 Bay Area residents, according to a report in the L.A. Times. The agency believes another round of cyber attacks may be right around the corner.
"We are in the process of contacting our customers to offer advice and extend regrets that this has happened," said Jim Allison, a spokesman for BART. Allison said his agency is receiving assistance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, while the FBI is also involved.
The L.A. Times says Anonymous also hacked the Fullerton Police Department as retribution for a fatal beating of a homeless man who was reportedly suffering from schizophrenia. Protestors were trying to organize a demonstration within BART's train systems, and the hacking group took exception when BART cut off wireless service in some of its stations.
"We are Anonymous, we are your citizens, we are the people, we do not tolerate oppression from any government agency," Anonymous posted on its website. "BART has proved multiple times that they have no problem exploiting and abusing the people."
According to the Huffington Post, the database Anonymous hacked into contained personal information on 55,000 subscribers.
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codepath
August 16, 2011 at 10:11am
Also, NPR was reporting this morning that the protest was against BART police shooting and killing a homeless man (which the BART police say threatened them with a knife).
BART officials also said that there are certain areas in which protesting is specifically not allowed like on the tracks and platforms as this is unsafe not just for the protesters but for non-protesting commuters as well.
Logic dictates that the protesters must have been on the tracks in order to meet their goal of stopping the train from leaving the station (watch the third rail) as waving a sign cannot stop a train from moving. At the same time, there is also no logic in shutting off 3G/wifi access as that cannot stop protesters from leaping in front of a train. And, as was said already, these Anonymous a-holes releasing citizen data to protest government action against citizen is equally illogical as this appears as assistance to those they are protesting.
All that said, I do not think that there is a single party involved in this entire story that has one effing bit of brain in their head.
Homeless guy waves a knife at police = FAIL!
BART killed a homeless guy = FAIL!
Protesters poured off of the platform in front of a train dangersously close to the third rail = FAIL!
BART turns off 3G & wifi for everyone in order to keep it quite = FAIL!
Anonymous, well, still exists = FAIL!
So you see, there is no winning, only losing.
Joji
August 18, 2011 at 4:13am
The reason why countries like Canada, America, or European countries would have such crazy riots, and etc etc, is because the country itself allows lazy ass useless immigrants to enter their country. Countries like Japan remain fairly stable when it comes to riots and other things, because Japan only accepts hard working people. Japan is top-notch when it comes to politeness, manners, and orderliness. It's the reason why we don't see crazy riots in Japan...
Think I'm rascist or something? There were riots to stop using nuclear technology after the Fukushima incident happened in Japan, and there were no stealing, killing, and etc. Heck things were so orderly, I bet if the same thing happened in other counries, all we'd see is chaos!
I just wish people in this world would stop doing stupid things and try to get along a bit better, and governments spending their money wisely on educating people instead of throwing trillions of dollars/pound down the drain for pointless nuclear missles and other stupid things.
dgrmouse
August 15, 2011 at 10:09pm
FYI, other sources are reporting that BART actually cut power to cellular phone towers rather than just WiFi. The ACLU is litigating, and it may indeed have been illegal.
blkpanthr
August 16, 2011 at 11:32am
doubtful. You have no right to "cell service"
If they own the towers, they can do whatever they like.
My guess is thye did this to avoid inciting rioting. Concidering what happened in the UK recently, im somewhat sympathetic.
Sweeney
August 15, 2011 at 10:40pm
I love how these idiots protest how our government is oppressing the citizenry through making decisions without our best interest in mind by...oppressing the citizenry through making decisions without our best interests in mind.
Anonymous is the very definition of the word "hypocrite". They're a small number of people unilaterally making decisions that affect the masses in order to protest the government, which is a small number of people unilaterally making decisions that affect the masses.
Except our government can actually be voted out, so Anonymous is actually more oppressive than government.
These jokers are nothing more than Kevin Smith wannabes who've seen V for Vendetta while stoned one too many times.
Someone needs to tell these guys that they just need a good blowjob and everything'll work itself out. The powa of Sexual Healin' doesn't disappoint, ohhh baby.
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
August 15, 2011 at 1:13pm
Go after Fox news. Give Bill O'Reilly a digital beat-down. Rape Sean Hannity. Castrate Glenn Beck.
DasHellMutt
August 15, 2011 at 12:35pm
I'm glad to see Anonymous wanting to weigh in on this on the side of the people. I'm also disapointed that more people aren't outraged about a psudo government agency quashing free speech and trying to prevent people from protesting. However, I don't think this was the right way for Anonymous to handle the situation. They should have done something like making public all internal BART email or personal information of those in change. Releasing the customer's information isn't a positive for anyone other than criminals.
I'd really like to know why the wireless carriers have allowed BART this lattitude via their contracts. I would think that if I'm the carrier and putting wireless access on your property, my contract would have to say that I have exclusive control over my equipment and the part of your property that it is on. Meaning BART has no authority to disconnect service. As the carrier that is part of my network and BART has no right to disrupt my network.
jesse_n_sf
August 15, 2011 at 11:26am
Anon are script Kiddys. They use other peoples software/technology to hack. Script kiddys are the worst and the most theatening to anyone. Actual people who build the hacking software are usually not as threatening because they hack for a spacific purpose and not for the fun of it like Anon does.
TerribleToaster
August 15, 2011 at 12:27pm
While I'll agree that most of Anon are script kiddies, I do not think that being a Script kiddy is "the worst" nor do I think they are more "threatening" than a hacker.
Nimrod
August 15, 2011 at 1:54pm
I still have yet to see one example of the the scripts they use. Can you please point me to the sckript that was designed to hack into BART?
TerribleToaster
August 16, 2011 at 5:28am
Better yet, you provide evidence they have all written original scripts.
Generally speaking, you don't assume everyone you meet who can use a computer is Bill Gates. You have to prove yourself to be good with code.
We don't assume you are code guru and then procede to try to find evidence otherwise until we settle on script kiddie. It's normally the other way around.
blkpanthr
August 15, 2011 at 9:01am
Jesus, what is with these asshats?
because losing my wireless in the trainstation is sooooo oppresive...
give me a break...
Nimrod
August 15, 2011 at 9:48am
ecause your a fluoride drinking slave.
Freedom isnt really for people who are so excited to give up liberty as you are. So please tell your conintelpro masters that you need a new home.
HiGHRoLLeR038
August 15, 2011 at 9:46am
what i dont understand is how they are helping the citizens by making their private information public. uh der
Nimrod
August 15, 2011 at 9:50am
What dont you get? They wanted to conduct a civil protest, a right that is guaranteed to them. The government hacked their phone system to shut them down, so some one hacked the governments computers in turn.
Seems like a fair deal.
Hg Dragon
August 15, 2011 at 1:32pm
Say we have blocked Facebook from the people on my corporate network. They decide to use the less-restricted WiFi we have in place for vendors and reps who visit our offices so they aren't on our private network and we don't have to go and enable/disable things all the time whenever they come in. We find out about them going using this workaround. I reach over and pull the power on the access point. Going by your example, I just hacked my own stuff and now deserve to have Anonymous come raiding through our servers?
Get bent.
It's BART's wireless service. They can turn it on and off whenever they want to. BART didn't do anything close to "hacking" a phone system. They simply turned off the WiFi access they provide to the public (at no charge, mind you). There's nothing "criminal" in that. There's nothing "oppressive" in that. They are in no way obligated to provide that service to anyone. They do it simply for a convenience. Turning off WiFi access in no way stopped the people from organizing any kind of protest. Did they prevent them from making any kind of phone call? Did they prevent them from, I odn't know, talking to the other people in the trains with them?!?!
Your "Righteous Indignation" filters are set way too high. You need to have them calibrated. I suggest you start by taking a step back, take a deep breath, look at things objectively, and THINK. FOR. YOURSELF! instead of simply taking whatever Anonymous puts out as "TEH TRUUF!!!"
Can you tell me what purpose it serves anyone to break into someone's servers, cull people's personal and private information, and post it for anyone and everyone to see? How is that protecting anyone? Who's benefit is it? They leaked the info of they very people they say thay are trying to protect "from oppression." What's more oppressive: Having your WiFi access turned off for a few minutes/hours while riding on a train, or having your personal info leaked and exposing you to potential identity theft?
If you say "WiFi," then you've obviously have nbever had your ID stolen. I have. Trust me. It's much more inconvenient than not being able to tend my crops on Facbook or check-in on Foursquare for the little time it takes to ride a train.
Sheep...
KenLV
August 15, 2011 at 11:09am
What right is it that guarantees ANYONE to “BART [provided] wireless service”?
While not allowed to stop lawful protest, they are not obligated to ASSIST in it. Further, due to perfectly reasonable safety concerns, BART and the City of San Francisco have the duty to limit when and where a “civil protest” can occur.
No one stopped them from having a lawful civil protest. But YOUR “right” to protest does not trump ANYONE ELSE’S right.
TerribleToaster
August 15, 2011 at 10:41am
A few problems with that explanation:
It was the government's (or rather BART's) wireless system, not Anons. They didn't hack it to shut Anon down, they shut down the wireless network (without hacking) to stop BART protestors (BART protestors=/= Anonymous).
Hacking the BART server and pulling this prank may have inconvenienced BART a little, but it did far more damage to the citizenry that, in their own words, they are protecting.
Screwing over the people whom you say you are protecting is not a helpful method of protecting them and tends to make people call “Bullshit”.
praack
August 15, 2011 at 10:32am
oo boy - you do live up to your name
hunter of men( in your case data), foolish in the eyes of god- enough biblical reference wee lad
so because of a fit they hack and let loose innocents for potential stalkers, identity theft etc. oh i understand that one.
nope not buying it, black hats all the way no cred in my book
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