Mel Gibson, Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton were among the 11 well-known names whose financial details were released.
The officials who were targeted
included FBI Director Robert Mueller and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck,
whose social security numbers and credit reports were published.
Pages posted on US Vice President
Joe Biden and the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not include
credit reports, but did reveal addresses and other sensitive information.
While government
officials often have to disclose details on their finances - and celebrity
divorces sometimes feature public financial data - the information posted
online exceeds those disclosures.
Social security numbers are
rarely included in public records anymore because they can be used for identity
theft.
Los Angeles police said they had
launched an investigation into the website, which had an internet suffix
originally assigned to Russia.
The site did not state how the
information had been obtained or why the 11 people targeted were chosen,
describing the records only as "secret files".
Several of the
purported credit reports appear to have been generated last week.
Representatives for each person
targeted either declined to comment on the accuracy of the information that was
posted, or they did not return messages seeking comment.
Several of the website’s pages
featured unflattering pictures of the celebrities or government officials whose
information was posted.
The site's page on Mr Beck
includes a taunting reference to former officer Christopher Dorner, who was
killed in a shootout after killing four people over several days last month.
Beck's page included the message
"(hash) You Cant CornerThe Dorner" and an image of a woman protesting
police corruption.


No comments:
Post a Comment