Indonesia group hacks Crime Stoppers site

Crime Stoppers Australia says no information of critical relevance was accessed when their website was hacked last week.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) says no sensitive information was compromised when Indonesian-based hackers accessed log-in details of a member through the Crime Stoppers website.

Crime Stoppers has also quelled concerns the unauthorised access, which also targeted state police members' log-in details, tapped into critical information.

The not-for-profit organisation says the information that cyber group "BlackSinchan" retrieved was not valuable, and labelled the release of details it did get "intimidation".

Indonesian-based cyber group BlackSinchan posted on Facebook on Friday what it claimed was encrypted passwords and emails attached to members of NSW, South Australia and Tasmania Police, Crime Stoppers and Australian Federal Police.

The post, which comes amid heightening tensions between Australia and Indonesia over a spying scandal, said the release was a "warning for (the) Australian Government".

The hackers appear to elude that more information was accessed beyond the email information.

But Crime Stoppers Australia deputy chairman Peter Price says that is not the case.

He said some of the information published is real while other snippets, including passwords, are not.

"We don't know what some of these passwords are - we have never seen them," he told AAP.

Mr Price said the Defence Department notified Crime Stoppers on Friday that its website had been hacked.

"Yes, the website was hacked and yes they published information on the internet, which was not of any critical relevance," he said.

Mr Price said the website was still safe for users because reported information was encrypted.

The hackers had obviously found a "hole" in the site but it had since been plugged, he added.

"The fact that they put this information online is nothing but intimidation and creating fear rather than what is real," he said.

An AFP spokeswoman said the published login information of its AFP member did not access AFP's IT systems.

"The login information is for access to a third-party website, which is not hosted by AFP ICT infrastructure and does not contain sensitive AFP information," she said in a statement.

The Crime Stoppers website will be down for the next 24 hours as a precaution.

Mr Price said people could still contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.


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Source: AAP


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