Australian Police, Hacking Cyber Criminals’ Forum, Face Counter Attack

The Australian Federal Police or AFP recently brought an illegal forum encouraging hacking under its control and began utilizing it for collecting clues to illicit operations. But, to AFP's embarrassment, a hacker, who bragged about the forum's feat on the website and on the national TV channel, invaded the police's PC utilized for the investigation

An ally of the investigating authorities said - the intruder viewed police evidences as well as intelligence related to police computers like their Internet Protocol addresses.

As part of their investigations, AFP officers searched the Brighton residence in Melbourne on August 19, 2009 to arrest a person they thought was the site admin of r00t-y0u.org, a hacking forum with 5,000 members. The evidences thus collected helped them to acquire the website's control and then collect further evidence about the usual visitors to the site who carried out illicit operations.

AFP, interviewed on Four Corners a TV show, revealed that their officials had made access to r00t-y0u.org after they monitored the logging process of the hackers who accessed the site and subsequently searched the site admin's residence. The federal police added that the site access was made without causing any damage to their associates while the penetration was significant and continual.

An Internet security specialist elucidated that an SQL injection was applied whereby the hacker gained an area shell and subsequently scanned the police computer associated with the investigation.

Thereafter, the hacker wrote that he was amused to find Windows OS on the server at the police premises, as the hacking community regarded that software as insecure. Further, the police had missed filling the MYSQL password, the hacker added.

The AFP, conversely, state that the things that the hacker posted have been taken from a different server of the department, which, though is utilized for similar investigations, doesn't contain any file or information that might or might not have been stolen.

In the meantime, experts noted that it was strange that the AFP was alerting the hacking forum's patrons about the monitoring operation rather than continuing with it. It is possibly establishing a charge that could have silenced the site's subscribers.

Related article: Australian Blogger Uses Spam To Boost Blog

» SPAMfighter News - 9/8/2009