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Hackers who targeted CIA director have breached a police arrest database

The teenage hacktivist group accessed a number of law enforcement systems, including an arrest booking system used by police across the US.
Written by Zack Whittaker, Contributor
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A police arrest booking system portal.
(Image: Cracka/Twitter)

Hackers who breached CIA director John Brennan's personal email account have taken another major cyber-scalp: a law enforcement arrest database,.

The hackers, known as Crackas With Attitude (CWA), said they have gained access to a series of law enforcement systems that allows police to share sensitive information in real-time. Screenshots said to be from the hack were posted on a Twitter account associated with the hacktivist group.

It's not clear exactly where the data came from, though Wired reports it's from a system known as the Joint Automated Booking System (JABS), a federal arrest booking system used by the local and federal law enforcement across the US. The hackers are also said to have accessed a police file transfer service, and a real-time chat service for police, among others.

The latest breach could be particularly significant as it may give the hackers access to the arrest records of anyone entered into the system. In one tweet, the hackers showed what appears to be the arrest records of Jeremy Hammond, a hacker convicted for his part in the Stratfor leak.

But Wired said, citing a former FBI agent, that suspects charged under seal "will only have limited data," and some records will have been removed to prevent leaks.

We reached out to the Justice Dept. over the weekend but did not hear back at the time of writing.

It's the latest in a series of attacks carried out by the teenage hacktivist group.

On Thursday, Motherboard reported that the hackers had stolen thousands of details belonging to US law enforcement, and posted the details online -- an act known as "doxxing."

The list, posted as a link on Twitter from a known account associated with the CWA hackers, which could not be independently verified, appears to display more than 2,200 records of law enforcement staff and federal agents, including names, titles, email addresses, and phone numbers.

The hackers first made waves in October when they used social engineering tricks to gain access to the personal AOL email account of CIA director John Brennan. A number of documents were later acquired by whistleblowing site WikiLeaks and posted online.

It's not clear if any of the documents, leaked or to come, are classified.

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