A hacker has published what appears to be private information — including Social Security numbers — of celebrities and potentially of top government officials, Anthony McCartney of The Associated Press reports.
The website — first published on RT— lists Social Security numbers attributed to first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as celebrities including Jay-Z (aka Shawn Carter), Ashton Kutcher, Donald Trump, and others.
From AP:
Social Security numbers posted on [Mel] Gibson, Jay-Z and others matched records in public databases.
The other public figures whose names appear on the site are LAPD Chief Charlie Beck (with references to ex-cop Chris Dorner), FBI Director Robert Mueller, Attorney General Eric Holder, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sarah Palin, Beyoncé Knowles, Hulk Hogan, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears.
The leaker appears to be adding names as time goes on— Trump and Spears weren't there at first, and pages for Hogan (aka Terry Bollea) and Palin arose around 21:00 EST. Pages for the first lady and Arnold Schwarzenegger popped up sometime after that.
All of the pages list a Date of Birth, SS number, previous addresses, and phone numbers under a customized picture (some have music). All of the pages — except those on Biden, Clinton, and Trump — link to a credit report. AP notes that "several of the purported credit reports appear to have been generated last week."
From Mike Roe Of Southern California Public Radio:
The website ... is registered under the .su country code, which was originally created for the Soviet Union. Swiss security blog abuse.ch notes that top-level domain has been increasingly used by cybercriminals.
Los Angeles police and the FBI told the AP they were aware of the pages but declined to comment further.
The Hacker's Twitter handle tweeted the website and a message that Google translates from Russian to English as "Hello world, we are exposed[su]. Our goal is to show you all that this is only one of a few tricks up his sleeve lone wolves."
We held off on this story earlier because of the gravitas and lack of confirmation. At this point we know that the credit reports seem new, Beyonce's number was registered to a "business management firm for entertainers," and the SS numbers of "Gibson, Jay-Z and others matched records in public databases."
Now Watch: Learn How To Dispute Credit Score Errors, If Your Social Security Number Has Been Hijacked
SEE ALSO: Cybersecurity experts expect a major hack of US banks in the spring of 2013
Please follow Military & Defense on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
