Back to their tricks at the weekend, internet hackers going under the banner of “Anonymous Portugal” have now gone public with a list of more than 300 undercover police vehicles used in traffic operations up and down the country.
Justifying the attack, Sidekingdom12 – an offshoot of Anonymous Portugal – declared: “If I use a mask to protect myself from this regime, I am (considered) a criminal. Thus they should be unmasked as they are out there hounding people with fines.”
The list includes the makes, colours and plate numbers of police cars in the country’s rural and urban police services.
It’s the second time the anarchist group has targeted the justice system in as many weeks.
On April 25, it managed to create cyber chaos by hacking into numerous sites, including the homepages of the Public Ministry, PJ police and CDS political party. As part of what they called operation National Blackout, the IT pirates also published the personal phone numbers and passwords of as many as 2,000 magistrates, including serious crime investigators at DIAP.
This latest attack is being investigated by the PSP, which told Lusa news agency: “First of all we have to see if the list is true and whether its publication constitutes abusive intrusion and the violation of security systems.
“At first glance, we don’t think that it does,” continued the official source from the PSP’s head office.
“The date of the list and the number plates and services mentioned seem to be quite old.”
Nonetheless, Anonymous Portugal is proving a thorn in the establishment’s side – apparently able to enter all manner of security systems with ease.
The Public Ministry has already advised the magistrates whose personal phone numbers and passwords were revealed to change all their online details – but the truth is this serves little more than shutting the door after the horse has bolted.
Cybercrime is on the increase the world over, say experts – and any teenager with IT skills and an inquiring mind “can easily become a hacker”.
