Skip to main content

LulzSec hits Arizona police computers, reveals sensitive data

chinga la migraHacking group LulzSec, in a move that seems more ideological than lulzworthy, has hit the State of Arizona’s law enforcement in what the group dubbed “Operation Chinga La Migra”. Late Thursday the hackers have released what they claim are hundreds of sensitive documents belonging to the state’s law enforcement officials.

The 447-megabytes worth of documents is available at Pirate Bay. The torrent of leaked materials contains bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, numbers, passwords and more. LulzSec says they targeted the Arizona police department specifically because of SB1070, the law which branded Arizona as one of the stricter anti-immigrant states in the US. The controversial SB1070 allowed cops to stop anyone and ask for identification; basically, if you had an accent you’re considered illegal.

The raid of government files seems to be part-flex, part image change. No more DDoS, this seems like their big boy voice and is well in line with their recent Operation Anti-Security anti-government move. Here’s what they said:

“We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona.

The documents classified as “law enforcement sensitive”, “not for public distribution”, and “for official use only” are primarily related to border patrol and counter-terrorism operations and describe the use of informants to infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups, and protest movements.

Every week we plan on releasing more classified documents and embarassing personal details of military and law enforcement in an effort not just to reveal their racist and corrupt nature but to purposefully sabotage their efforts to terrorize communities fighting an unjust “war on drugs”.

Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors – the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world. See you again real soon.”

These personal documents detail complaints against the Mexican government, fascinating day-to-day stories of gun fights at McDonalds, new drugs being disguised as cigarettes, iPhone apps that cops dislike, a guide to social networking, sneaky new tech tactics being used by criminals and the obvious lack of funding the Arizona government has for their own tech.

The documents also detail threat levels for certain groups like motorcycle gangs, and interestingly the police find that Jew for Jesus count as a very low threat level. If you don’t feel like downloading it, BoingBoing has posted a few highlights to ponder. Something like this seems like it would get the goat of a patriotic hacker like Th3J35t3r. Actually, LulzSec’s website was down when we checked it an hour ago, so maybe they have already felt the repercussions. The Lulz hacker group said that there will be more to come Monday.

Jeff Hughes
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a SF Bay Area-based writer/ninja that loves anything geek, tech, comic, social media or gaming-related.
Hurry! Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5 have hefty price cuts today
The Surface Pro 9 in laptop mode on a table.

Microsoft's Surface devices are high-performance machines that are designed to maximize the capabilities of Windows 11. If you're on the lookout for Surface Laptop and Surface Pro deals, don't miss this chance to get a discount from Best Buy on the latest consumer models, as the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 are only available for commercial users for now. The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is on sale for only $800, for $300 in savings on its original price of $1,100, while the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 is also down to $800, for $500 in savings on its sticker price of $1,300. You better hurry with your purchase though, as we're not sure when these offers will expire.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 -- $800, was $1,100

Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 -- $800, was $1,300

Read more
Best SSD deals: Samsung 990 Pro discounts
Samsung 990 PRO SSD over a dark background.

As recently as a decade ago, you would most likely be using HDDs for storage, which tend to be quite slow and take up an absolute tone of space, even the smaller form factor ones made for laptops. If you wanted something a bit more fancy, like a modern M.2 SSD, you'd be paying a huge premium even for smaller sizes like 256GB and 512GB. Luckily there have been huge leaps in technology and manufacturing, and these days you can get your hands on the best SSDs for a pretty good price. Not only does that mean that you can save space, but you can also load Windows and your applications a lot faster, something we expect to see in the best gaming PCs and gaming laptops. If you need a new SSD to upgrade a gaming rig, check out RAM deals and GPU deals as well. If you need something that can swap between multiple devices, you'll prefer checking out external hard drive deals.
Our favorite SSD deal

If you're looking for something that's top-of-the-line and won't break the bank, then the Samsung 990 PRO is probably the way to go. It has the newer PCIe 4.0 standard, which makes it a great PS5 SSD if you can get it a heatsink, and it has a read speed of 7450 Mbps and a write speed of 6900 Mbps, so it's lightning fast. The 2TB model here has been discounted down to just $190 from the original $250, so you're saving a pretty solid $60 in the process. There is a 1TB version that's cheaper if you don't think you need that much, as well as a 4TB model that's great for those who have a tendency to hoard data.

Read more
Best Surface Laptop and Surface Pro deals: From $523
Microsoft Surface Go 3 sitting on table.

While the MacBook Air has become synonymous with being a high-quality and lightweight laptop, it does mean that you'd have to be part of the Apple ecosystem. Luckily, there are some great alternatives out there, and Microsoft's Surface lineup is made specifically to compete with MacBook deals. While the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 aren't quite here yet, at least at the consumer level, you can still grab the latest models with some pretty great deals. That's why we've gone out and looked for our favorite Surface Laptop and Surface Pro deals and compiled them all here for you to save you the hassle, although if these don't quite do it for you, be sure to check out other great laptop deals and 2-in-1 laptop deals as well.
Microsoft Surface Go 3 -- $523, was $550

Functioning as a 2-in-1 laptop that can switch between tablet mode and laptop mode, the Microsoft Surface Go 3 won't have trouble dealing with basic tasks as it's equipped with the Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y processor and 8GB of RAM. The 10.5-inch touchscreen with 1920 x 1080 resolution is bright and colorful, and its 128GB SSD is more than enough for your documents. The Microsoft Surface Go 3 ships with Windows 11 Home in Mode, so you can start using it as soon as you unbox it. The device also promises up to 11 hours of battery life before requiring a recharge.

Read more