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The infamous hacker group “Anonymous” has struck again and this time, their victim was Cincinnati Police Department. They have released personal information of 52 officers. The leaked information has some important names like Chief Eliot Isaac to rank-and-file officers. Cincinnati police Lt. Steve Saunders mentioned in his statement that the department is investigating the matter and trying to access how dangerous is the threat.
The police department is trying to check if the leak is from some internal source or they have hacked the department’s system to access the data. The initial reports are suggesting that there might be a chance that all the information that has been leaked might be collected using different social media resources and other public records.
In the 3-minute video published by the group named Anon Verdict claims that the leak is in the response of recent death of Paul Gaston. He was shot and killed by the Cincinnati police department last week. Though it is still not clear if the Anon Verdict group is associated with the Anonymous group or not. As of now, none of the official accounts of Anonymous has shown support to the Anon Verdict group.
Just a day before Paul was killed by the officers, a white man was also shot. The incident happened with Mount Healthy police department. The reports submitted by the Mount Healthy police explained the incident as an accident. They mentioned in their statement that Laugle pointed a toy gun at the officers to which they reacted and fired Taser to control him. He was arrested after the incident. Anon Verdict tried to compare these two incidents to which Mount Healthy Police Chief Vince Demasi claimed that these incidents are totally different.
In the case of Mount Healthy, the officers said that the gun was fake and the gun had bright orange markings on the barrel which shows that it is a toy. On the other hand, the reports related to Guston killing suggest that he was carrying am Airsoft gun which looked like a real one. Officers claimed that Guston reached to his gun to his waist when he was on his knees.
The group Anon Verdict has also released the video related to the encounter that was recorded by one of the bystanders. The group has threatened to release more personal data if similar incidents happen in future.
The Anonymous group has been active in the Cincinnati region from the day they went public. In 2008, they protested outside the Church of Scientology of Ohio on Fourth Street. The action against the Church of Scientology took place at many locations around the world. The group has been active since then and also marched in the protest followed by the death of Sam DuBose in 2015. They have also organized events to gather clothes for the homeless mainly in Piatt Park.
Other than public events, Anonymous has been active in protesting against the CIA, different newspapers and big corporate like Sony in past. They have hacked a lot of sensitive websites to mark their protest. The real faces of the group are still unknown but they have managed to draw attention towards themselves.
