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Thousands of Whistle Blowers Vulnerable After Anonymous Hacks SAPS

Posted by Unknown on from the hacktivism-gone-wrong dept.

First time accepted submitter fezzzz writes "Anonymous performed a data dump of hundreds of whistle blowers' private details in an attempt to show their unhappiness with the SAPS (South African Police Service) for the Marikana shooting. In so doing, the identities of nearly 16,000 South Africans who lodged a complaint with police on their website, provided tip-offs, or reported crimes are now publicly available." Reader krunster also submitted a slightly more in depth article on the breach.

3 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. worst, summary, ever. by nimbius · · Score: 5, Informative

    the entire summary and the first half of the article is basically an agenda for discrediting anonymous and whitewashing the local cops.
    the leak was in response to the complaints from citizens sent to the police department, assigned a case number, and basically ignored by the police. what were the complaints about? the shooting death of 34 platinum mine workers by the police. you dont need to worry about exposing whistleblowers because the police killed 34 mine workers during a protest pretty much describes the suspects. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10016471/South-Africa-the-Massacre-That-Changed-a-Nation-BBC-Two-review.html

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  2. Whistle Blowers? by sesshomaru · · Score: 3, Informative

    Look, police informants are not whistle blowers. You may think they deserve to be protected, but the term whistle blower has a specific meaning that does not equate to police informant.

    --
    "MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
  3. something is worst, ever alright. by Main+Gauche · · Score: 3, Informative

    According to the second article above provided by krunster, the hackers posted this message with the data dump:

    "South African Police Service Web site hacked saps.gov.za database and e-mails leaked. The reason for this action is to serve as a reminder to the government regarding the murders of 34 protesting miners outside the Marikana platinum mine by police. To date no officers have been brought to justice... This situation will NOT be tolerated. #OpMarikanaMiners @domaineranon.”

    So in response to the alleged 34 murders, the hackers expose 16000 names of innocent people to "punish" the cops? This would be like punishing Hitler by gassing American Jews.

    If even one of those 16K people is killed as a result of this, the hackers become accessories to murder, in my book.