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Dickson County TN deputy sheriff dies from gunshots www.privateofficer.com
Dickson County TN June 7 2011 A Sheriff’s deputy Keith Bellar died at 7:47 a.m. after he was shot in the head yesterday by 27-year-old Jayson Eggenberg.
Dickson County Sheriff Jeff Bledsoe made the announcement at a press conference this morning at 10:30 a.m. at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“Deputy Bellar was doing what he did best, serving and protecting the citizens of Dickson County,” Bledsoe said.
Bellar, a field training officer with the Dickson County Sheriff’s Office, responded to what he believed was a car crash early on Monday morning.
Eggenberg forced his wife’s car off the road, and opened fire on Bellar’s vehicle as he approached the scene. Eggenberg then turned the gun on himself.
According to Bledsoe, Bellar is the second person in the history of the Dickson County Sheriff’s Office to die in the line of duty.
Bledsoe acknowledged yesterday that Bellar’s situation was grim.
“He’s still in intensive care, and it’s a grave situation,” Bledsoe said. “We haven’t been given any good news.”
Bellar is survived by his wife, Brandi, and a six-month-old son, Jacob.
Bellar is the second law enforcement officer from Dickson County to die in the line of duty in the span of a month. Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper Andy Wall died in May after he crashed his motorcycle during a police escort.
Dickson TN deputy sheriff shot in the head www.privateofficer.com
DICKSON, Tenn.June 7 2011 – Dickson police said sheriff’s deputy Keith Bellar is in extremely serious condition after he was shot by a man who then killed himself in what police describe as a domestic violence dispute.
Dickson police chief Ricky Chandler said Bellar was shot in the head by 27-year-old Jayson Eggenberg on Monday morning after stopping to assist the suspect’s estranged wife.
Chandler said Eggenberg had been following his estranged wife, who works as a 911 dispatcher, in his car and ran her off the road when the deputy stopped. The deputy thought he was on the scene of a car accident, but then Eggenberg started shooting at him.
Chandler said after the deputy was shot, Eggenberg walked over to his wife’s car and killed himself.
Bellar was flown to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He has been with the sheriff’s office for six years. He has a wife and 6 month old.
Chandler said that police had been called to Eggenberg’s wife’s home concerning several domestic issues in the past.
Source:AP
Deported illegal immigrant sues US over injuries www.privateofficer.com
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says 41-year-old Jose Gutierrez was trying to re-enter the country through the San Luis port when he was ordered to a secondary area for follow-up inspection.
The agency says Gutierrez fell and hit his head on the floor March 30 while trying to escape back to Mexico.
Gutierrez’s attorney tells the Yuma Sun the injury stems from excessive force applied by port officers.
A spokesman of U.S. Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the lawsuit but confirmed the incident is under investigation
Source:AZCentral.com
Police shoot armed man at Jackson nightclub www.privateofficer.com
JACKSON, Miss. June 7 2011– A Jackson police officer shot a man in the parking lot of a local nightclub early Monday, authorities said.
A security guard called police to the parking lot of the Birdland nightclub on Farish Street about 3 a.m. after he said someone there had a gun.
“Once the officers arrived on the scene, they were directed to several individuals that they observed with weapons on the parking lot,” said Deputy Chief Eric Walls.
Walls said when the group of men was confronted by the officers, the men resisted arrest and tried to leave the scene, running over a female officer’s foot in the process. Walls said when additional officers arrived, one of the men involved refused to obey the officers’ demands to turn around and show his hands.
“When the subject did face the officer, the officer saw what he believed to be a weapon and discharged his firearm, striking the subject in the lower torso,” Walls said.
Police have not released the name of the man who was shot, but said he underwent surgery and was listed in stable condition on Monday.
Five people were arrested and are facing multiple charges, police said. Weapons and drugs were recovered, investigators said. All but one of the five men were released from jail, authorities said.
Vincent Orgamin was one of the five arrested. He said they were unnecessarily roughed up by the police and spent three hours in jail for no reason. Orgamien said the officer had no reason to shoot his friend.
“He didn’t have no gun or nothing. (The officer) didn’t say freeze or nothing. He just started shooting the man,” Orgamin said.
The name of the officer involved in the shooting has not been released. He has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation is under way, police said.
Source:www.wapt.com
Shoplifter claims chest pain and delays arrest www.privateofficer.com
The suspect, 41, of Cleveland, first gave police a false Social Security number. He also complained of chest pains.
Police learned the man allegedly stole four polo shirts from the Men’s Footlocker, each valued at $10.
Also in his shopping bag were six shirts from Lady Footlocker, and a pair of tennis shoes from the Finish Line valued at $75.
The suspect did not have receipts for any of the merchandise.
Due to his claims of chest pains, he was taken to Richmond Heights Hospital.
He was charged with possession of criminal tools, obstructing official business and theft.
Wanted teacher’s aide captured by US Marshals in Texas www.privateofficer.com
EMMETT TOWNSHIP, Mich. June 7 2011 – A teacher’s aid from W.K. Kellogg Middle School has been arrested, accused of sexually assaulting a student.
April Patzkowsky was arrested June 3rd after Emmett Township Department of Public Safety alerted Texas law enforcement that she may be living with family in the Texas area.
Patzkowsky was wanted on an outstanding warrant stemming from a sexual assault complaint.
Shortly after Texas law enforcement learned about the warrant, Patzkowsky was found and arrested by U.S. Marshals in Brownsville, Texas.
Patzkowsky is now being held in Texas pending extradition procedures.
Source:NewsChannel3
Atlanta fire department unknowingly gave 18,000 counterfeit smoke detectors to residents www.privateofficer.com
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. -June 7 2011
Atlanta firefighters went door to door this weekend asking their own Tough Questions.
“We are here to install a smoke detector. Do you have a smoke detector?” asked a firefighter to a homeowner.
Crews spent hours this weekend replacing counterfeit smoke detectors.
As a mother, Laura Arroyo was scared to find out her alarm didn’t work.
“So we were kind of worried,” Arroyo said.
A CBS Atlanta exclusive investigation uncovered the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department unknowingly handed out more than 18,000 fake smoke detectors.
Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran said it took five years to install them into homes.
The Tough Question: How long will it take to replace them?
“Two and a half to three years is literally as fast as we can do it with the other duties and responsibilities that our firefighters have,” Cochran said.
So far, just a couple hundred fakes have been replaced.
Another Tough Question: Why will it take years to replace them?
“We don’t have addresses for every resident where we’ve installed a smoke alarm. What we do have is a record of all the neighborhoods that we have canvassed,” Cochran said.
Currently, the department is armed with a just few thousand new alarms. Cochran said the remainder were coming with the help of a federal grant
“It’s not going to be a problem for us getting the smoke alarms, but the challenge is the time it will take to get them recalled and redistributed,” Cochran said.
Husband turns in teacher for having sex with student www.privateofficer.com
COWETA COUNTY, Ga. June 7 2011– Deputies said a trail of text messages led to the arrest of a Coweta County teacher who is accused of having sex with a student.
Dorothy Dixon, 29, is charged with one count of child molestation. Dixon worked as a contract employee at Northgate High School where she worked with troubled teens as a special education teacher, officials said.
Coweta County Sheriff Mike Yeager told Channel 2’s Manuel Bojorquez that Dixon’s husband alerted them to the relationship.
“Apparently he had found where she had been sending emails or sexting messages. He thought she was having an affair with another man. Come to find out, it was actually a 15, now 16-year-old individual that this person apparently taught in school,” Yeager said.
In one text message Dixon asked the student if her “boots were sexy” and talked about “sneaking away together,” according to the arrest warrant. Dixon also revealed the relationship to another work colleague, deputies said.
Yeager said Dixon is in custody in the Coweta Count Jail. Deputies have handed their evidence over to the District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
Source:WBSTV.com
Former Jefferson County, Ky. teacher Carrie Shafer pleads guilty www.privateofficer.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. June 7 2011- Former Jefferson County, Ky. high school teacher Carrie Shafer, who was found partially nude with a 17-year-old male student, pleaded guilty Friday to the two charges against her but won’t face jail time thanks to a plea deal, reports CBS affiliate WLKY.
Shafer, 38, was indicted on a felony charge for custodial interference for keeping the teen after school without parental permission and a misdemeanor charge of unlawful transaction with a minor, according to the station.
Shafer was allegedly found partially nude with the student in March in a parked car at Miles Park after hours.
The car was parked in a handicapped space and the windows were steamed, according to the police report. The two had apparently been drinking and a used condom was also found outside the vehicle, police said.
The 38-year-old resigned from her position two days after the incident.
After pleading guilty, Shafer received a three-year sentence for the custodial interference charge and 12 months for the unlawful transaction with a minor charge, but she may not be facing jail time, according to WLKY.
The judge reportedly placed Shafer on diversion, meaning she won’t have to report to prison unless she is arrested on new charges in the next three years. The suspended sentence is part of a plea deal.
The judge ordered Shafer to stay away from employment and volunteer work that puts her in a position of trust, reports WLKY. There is a complaint in pending against the former biology teacher by the Education Professional Standards Board, according to a spokeswoman.
Source- CBS/WLKY
Shoplifters fleeing PA. mall crashes getaway car www.privateofficer.com
UPPER MERION, Pa. – June 7, 2011 — Police say at least five people are in custody after crashing a getaway car following a theft at the King of Prussia Mall in Upper Merion, Montgomery County.
It began around 12:30 p.m. when the alleged suspects stole items from the Salvatore Ferragamo store, a high-end retailer, located inside The Plaza at King of Prussia.
The suspects got into a car that fled at a high rate of speed. Police told Action News that they did not pursue the suspects.
The vehicle then crashed in the area of 651 S. Gulph Road after hitting an accountant’s office and causing a gas leak.
“We heard a loud noise and I thought someone had a collision out front,” said owner George Shoffner, who went on to say he tried to help the men after the crash.
“The police came up behind me and drew a gun and said to get away from the car, so we all backed off,” he said.
Three of the suspects were seriously injured and were flown to local hospitals. Another was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
One suspect tried to flee on foot but was caught by a police dog on the scene.
Police say the suspects had dropped some of their stolen items in a parking lot at 555 Croton Road.
No one inside the accountant’s office was hurt due, in part, because a new employee started on Wednesday.
“We had a new person starting today and we were getting ready to go out to lunch, so it was good she wasn’t sitting there!” said Shoffner.
Source:WPVI
Armed men terrorize south Florida hotel guests www.privateofficer.com
Miami Fla. June 7 2011 In the privacy of hotel rooms, both low-end and posh, a group of armed men has taken some professional escorts by surprise — choking, beating and robbing them, South Florida court records from the past two months show.
The rich clients the escorts expected turned out, instead, to be violent criminals intent on terrorizing and stealing from them. The robbers stormed into hotel rooms and beat, fondled and pepper-sprayed the escorts, almost all of whom were women.
In one of the worst assaults, a female escort was raped by two men at a Fort Lauderdale hotel, the records show.
Fort Lauderdale and Plantation police, along with the Broward Sheriff’s Office, have made five arrests, and say their ongoing investigation might result in more. Police say some or all of the suspects were acting as a group.
As police in Broward investigated the attacks, they found similarities. A common trait: The escorts all advertised online, mostly on Backpage.com, a classified ads website, said Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Detective Travis Mandell. One woman advertised on Craigslist.com, court records show.
“The anonymity of the Internet made it easier for these suspects to set up the escorts,” Mandell said. “When they’re posting contact information on there, it makes it easier to set up a situation where they can easily be robbed.”
Citing the investigation, law enforcement agencies would not specify how many escorts were victimized. Mandell said at least six were targeted in Fort Lauderdale alone.
Online-escort robberies occur sporadically across the United States. For example, on April 30 and May 1 in New York City, two prostitutes reportedly were assaulted and robbed in hotel rooms by a man responding to their ads.
But the attacks are a new crime trend in Fort Lauderdale, where they go to the police department’s violent crimes unit, Mandell said. “Our detectives are working nonstop, investigating all possible leads and victims.”
Indoor escort or prostitution services tend to be safer than street prostitution, but are still risky unless certain precautions are taken, said Ronald Weitzer, a sociology professor and sex-industry expert at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Some escorts have personal websites where potential clients must submit their personal information, even their Social Security numbers, Weitzer said. Other protections include having drivers waiting outside hotels, or lining up co-workers to phone in case of emergency, he said.
Still, there are escorts who do not thoroughly screen their clients, Weitzer said. They are among those who generate business from sites such as Backpage.com, Craigslist or Facebook, he said.
“If they’re operating alone, they don’t have the luxury of having co-workers or a manager to intervene in case trouble does arise,” Weitzer said.
On Backpage.com, the ads from male and female escorts urge customers to call for companionship described variously as “sexy . . freaky . . . wild.” They are supplemented with photos of escorts in various stages of undress, some atop beds and striking provocative poses.
Backpage.com has kept open its adult-services section despite a request last year by 21 state attorneys general to close it. In September, Craigslist shut down its adult services section in response to criticism from Congress that it was facilitating child exploitation and prostitution.
An executive at Village Voice Media, Backpage.com’s owner, referred questions to legal counsel Steve Suskin. He could not be reached for comment despite emails and a telephone message left at his office.
The Village Voice wrote in a Sept. 19 blog entry that it cooperates with authorities and has safeguards to ensure only adults use the site.
It argued that people can legally post directly onto websites like Backpage.com “without pre-screening or censorship,” according to the blog entry. “The responsibility, under the law, rests with the person supplying the post.”
Arrested in May and charged in the Broward robbery spree were: Eutil Couch, 29, of Sunrise; Brandon Lamichael Medina, 23, of Hollywood; Keonta Murray, 26, of Port St. Lucie; and Henry Ronald Mitchell, 24, and Jonathan H. Williams, 23, both of Fort Lauderdale.
One of the first of the recent series of attacks occurred on April 15, when a female escort was choked inside a room at the Quality Inn at 1711 N. University Drive in Plantation, court records show.
The escort advertised on Craigslist and had a rendezvous with Murray at about 10 a.m., police said. They had consensual sex, and then Murray began sending out text messages, police said.
When Murray left the room, two men barged in, with handguns holstered to their belts. Murray reappeared and helped beat and choke the escort, police said. The robbers stole her purse, which contained about $200, and fled.
In a Fort Lauderdale incident on May 6, a female victim said she was raped at gunpoint by Medina and another man in room at the Extended Stay Deluxe Hotel, 6001 NW Sixth Way, a complaint affidavit said.
A third attacker, and a second victim, also were present. At gunpoint, one of the victims was ordered to take a shower. Then she was raped by two of the men and ordered to shower again, police said.
After the rape, the robbers had both victims telephone their banks to check on their balances, a police affidavit said. From the woman who was raped, the men stole $90 and her iPhone.
The crimes are not limited to women.
On May 12, Williams robbed a male escort in a room at the Fort Lauderdale La Quinta Inn, 5727 N. Federal Hwy., a police report said.
The escort, who advertised on Backpage.com, had stopped expecting company, but his customer showed up late.
He was startled when a man tried to break through the security-latched door. The escort “tried to keep [the door] closed while yelling in fear,” an arrest report said.
Williams forced his way into the room, struck the escort with the gun, groped him and demanded money, police said. He got the escort’s cellphone, pink purse and about $60, they said.
The arrests police have reported so far came from compiling victims’ information, tracing suspects’ telephone numbers and directing police surveillance at one suspect’s house.
An escort robbed in April gave officers the telephone number of one attacker, identified as Murray’s. He was arrested on May 9.
Through text messages, another robber said he would accept $200 in trade for a phone he had stolen from an escort on May 6 at the Red Roof Inn at 4800 Powerline Rd., Oakland Park. Police linked the messages to Couch and arrested him May 12.
Officials said they are concerned that more escorts were victimized and have not notified police. Detectives asked anyone with information about the robberies to call police, or Broward Crime Stoppers anonymously at 954-493-8477.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com
Mother says daughter was poisoned during religous ceremony www.privateofficer.com
The church claims she was never given bee pollen, only a master cleanse mix meant to help her religious fast. The Church of Divine Appointment on Lake Mead Blvd. and Revere St. is accused of negligence in the death of the teenager during a religious ritual.
In a YouTube video, the pastor of the church, Dr. Glories Powell speaks about fasting, “The only way you can really fast is to stop eating. Cover your mouth. Stop the flow. Shut the gates, close the door. And push the flesh. You cannot fast by doing nothing other than abstaining from food.”
The lawsuit claims teenager Brianna Benbo died July 6, 2010 after church leaders “instructed, induced and insisted” she take bee pollen to begin a religious fast.
“The church doesn’t advocate, doesn’t prescribe, doesn’t subscribe any ritualistic brews, any medications, none of this,” said Powell. She claims parishioners were only using “master cleanse,” a laxative mixture of water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper.
Metro and North Las Vegas police say a death investigation took place. But after the coroner ruled the cause of death as asthma, no further investigation happened. The District Attorney’s office says it would have been up to Metro to bring criminal charges.
A police spokesman says the “reasonable person standard” is the deciding factor. That requires proof a religious leader knew certain chemicals or physical items could cause bodily harm.
It’s the same standard used to try James Arthur Ray. The Arizona faith healer is charged with negligence in three deaths during a 2009 religious sweat lodge ceremony.
Pastor Powell further claims the teenager wasn’t at the church the day in question because services were canceled. Attempts to reach the attorney of the teenager’s family went unanswered.
Shoplifter threatens TJ Maxx agent with pepper spray www.privateofficer.com
Homewood IL June 7 2011 A Chicago man reportedly threatened a T.J. Maxx security officer with pepper spray, after which he and a young accomplice led police on a foot chase through three other area businesses, police said. Brian K. Travis, 20, of Chicago, was charged with retail theft, trespassing and battery in connection with the Thursday evening incident.
Around 7:11 p.m., Travis and a juvenile accomplice were stopped outside the store at 17900 Halsted St. by a T.J. Maxx employee who suspected the two of shoplifting. At that point, the juvenile fled, while Travis pulled a canister of pepper spray from his right pocket, brandishing it toward the employee and threatening to spray him if he didn’t move, according to the report.
The employee told police he moved aside because he was afraid he’d be sprayed, and Travis and his accomplice then fled into the T-Mobile store at 17923 S. Halsted St., forcing their way into a back room.
Officers responding to the incident found the room empty, then were tipped off by a woman waiting for a bus that the pair had fled into the Chili’s restaurant at 17928 S. Halsted St.
Officers found Travis inside the Chili’s and ordered him to the floor, according to the report. The juvenile accomplice was taken into custody after he was discovered hiding in the men’s restaurant of the Wendy’s restaurant at 18257 S Halsted St. in Glenwood.
At the Homewood police station, Travis was found to have a canister of pepper spray in his right pocket, and a pair of blue men’s underwear with T.J. Maxx tags on them in his left pocket, police said.
Organized shoplifters hitting retailers harder-faster and getting away www.privateofficer.com
New York City NY June 7 2011 When three New York City women visited South Jersey earlier this year, they went on quite a shopping spree.
The trio loaded up on more than $4,000 worth of merchandise from a half-dozen clothing stores on an upscale stretch of Route 73 in Evesham — and, according to police, shoplifted all of it.
The allegations against the women don’t surprise John Holub, president of the New Jersey Retail Merchants Association. He says out-of-state shoplifters, often working in organized rings, are a recurring headache for New Jersey retailers.
“It’s a problem that’s been increasing,” said Holub. “Shoplifting is not a teenager stealing a pack of gum. It’s organized rings that can be very sophisticated.”
Indeed, the South Jersey-Philadelphia region is among the nation’s Top 10 areas for organized retail theft activity, according to the National Retail Federation.
“We’re a primary target of these people,” said Mount Laurel Police Chief Dennis Cribben, noting his township has several shopping centers off exits for Interstate 295.
The rings typically consist of “boosters,” who steal goods, and “fence operators,” who sell the stolen items for cash or drugs. Some proceeds from a ring’s take can support other criminal activities, including terrorism, according to the NRF.
“All of the operations are not alike,” said Holub. “Some are very sophisticated, and others just pick folks off the street who need money for drugs.”
The rings typically target items that can be sold for close to full price, particularly designer clothing, electronics, over-the-counter medicines, batteries and infant formula. “Some of the (shoplifters) are sent here with actual shopping lists,” said Holub.
It’s no coincidence many “boosters” come from other states. Suspected shoplifters, after being arrested here, often are released pending a municipal court hearing. To escape prosecution, some skip the court session and stay in their home state, knowing extradition is unlikely.
“They basically get away with it,” said Police Det. Sgt. William Covert in Cinnaminson, where people from nearby Philadelphia are often charged with shoplifting along the township’s Route 130 corridor.
Covert also noted out-of-staters have little to fear from the publication of surveillance photos.
“Who’s going to recognize them?” he asked.
Annual losses from organized retail theft may be as much as $15 billion nationwide, according to the NRF. That can result in a “crime tax” in the form of higher prices for paying customers, said Holub.
In one notable case, two thieves made off with more than $13,000 in goods from a Nordstrom store at the Cherry Hill Mall last September. And three Philadelphians are accused of taking items worth more than $2,300 from the same store last month.
Also last month, Cherry Hill police say, a man and woman stuffed a messenger bag with almost $700 in merchandise during less than five minutes at Ulta, a salon-products shop at the Garden State Marketplace. The couple left the bag behind when they fled.
Sometimes, the threat from boosters can be more direct. Cherry Hill police say one shoplifting suspect, a Camden man, was carrying a gun when he was arrested in the Home Depot on Route 70 in April.
Shoplifting has gotten a boost from the popularity of online sales, according to Holub and the NRF. Items sold on the Internet can get 70 percent of their original value, compared with 30 cents on the dollar for traditional operations such as flea markets and pawn shops, according to the retail group.
“In larger cases, merchandise also may be fed back through the supply chain by re-packagers and illegitimate wholesalers,” the federation notes in its 2010 report on organized retail theft.
Some criminals “have even found ways to switch UPC bar codes on merchandise so they ring up differently at checkout, commonly called ticket switching,” says the report. “Others use stolen or cloned credit cards to obtain merchandise or produce fictitious receipts to return products back to retail stores.”
Retailers generally do not discuss the tactics they use against shoplifters. Nordstrom spokeswoman Brooke White cited that concern for secrecy in declining to comment for this article.
But Cherry Hill Police Lt. William Kushina says many local retailers have increased their defenses.
“They’re instructing their employees to be more vigilant,” he said. “It’s usually their own security that takes someone into custody.”
Among other measures, Holub noted the creation in December 2008 of an Organized Retail Theft Task Force in New Jersey, with members from the business world and law enforcement. He also said local prosecutors have cracked down on home-grown shoplifting rings, citing a joint investigation last year in Camden and Gloucester counties.
That probe began after local retailers reported losing “tens of thousands of dollars” to boosters between January and April of 2010, said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton. Investigators, using information from arrested shoplifters, an informant and an undercover officer, determined that a North Camden bodega was at the center of a vast black market for stolen goods, Dalton said.
“The investigation led to the shutdown of the bodega, the arrests of the owner/operator . . . and his brother, and their pending deportation to the Dominican Republic,” Dalton said Friday.
Holub, who described shoplifters as “foot soldiers,” said retailers welcome law enforcement’s pursuit of higher-ups.
“Who we really want . . . are the people who run these rings,” he said. “You want to catch the boosters and hope they ultimately will lead you to the big fish.”
Ohio man facing prison in theft of cookware www.privateofficer.com
Mentor OH June 7 2011 A man is accused of trying to steal $800 worth of cookware from the Macy’s department store in Great Lakes Mall.
Store security spotted Dino Deniro, 49, of Willoughby Hills, carrying a set of cookware from the store last week, Mentor Police Lt. Ken Gunsch said.
When security followed him to his car in the mall’s parking lot, he dropped the cookware and ran away, leaving his keys in the car. However, police spotted Deniro when he came back to the mall and arrested him outside of Dillard’s.
When police searched Deniro’s car, they found another set of stolen cookware and clothes that they think were taken from J.C. Penney, Gunsch said.
Deniro was charged with a felony count of theft and arraigned Monday morning in Mentor Municipal Court. Judge John Trebets set his bond at $5,000, which Deniro posted.
If convicted of theft, Deniro could be released on probation or spend up to one year in prison.
Source:Mentor Patch
Passwords of FBI partner stolen and leaked to Internet www.privateofficer.com
The logins belonged to members of the local chapter of InfraGard, a public-private partnership devoted to sharing information about threats to U.S. physical and Internet infrastructure, the chapter’s president told The “Someone” did compromise the website,” InfraGard Atlanta Members Alliance President Paul Farley said in a brief email exchange. “We do not at this time know how the attack occurred or the method used to reveal the passwords.”
Copies of the passwords — which appear to include users from the U.S. Army, cybersecurity organizations and major communications companies — were posted to the Internet by online hacking collective Lulz Security, which has claimed credit for a string of attacks in the past week.
In a statement, Lulz Security also claimed to have used one of the passwords to steal nearly 1,000 work and personal emails from the chief executive of Wilmington, Delaware-based Unveillance LLC.
Lulz Security claimed it was acting in response to a recent report that the Pentagon was considering whether to classify some cyberattacks as acts of war.
The FBI said Sunday that it was aware of the incident and that steps were being taken to mitigate the damage. Farley said InfraGard’s website had been taken down and that members had been advised to change their passwords and beware of further attacks.
Farley added that his group — a volunteer organization — had had no previous involvement with Lulz Security, which describes itself as a collective of hackers who attack weakly-protected websites for fun. Lulz is a reference to Internetspeak for “laugh out loud.”
The collective appears to have had a busy week.
Earlier Sunday, Nintendo said it had been targeted in a recent online data attack claimed by Lulz Security. Nintendo said no personal or company information was lost.
On Thursday, Lulz Security boasted of a major breach which saw as many as tens of thousands of Sony users’ details posted to the Internet.
The group has also claimed credit for defacing the PBS website after the public television broadcaster aired a documentary seen as critical of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Emails and other messages seeking comment from the group over the past few days have gone unanswered, although it maintains an active presence on microblogging site Twitter, where it taunts its opponents and promises more hacks.
