BART Site Hacked; Anonymous Protest Decision to Block Cellphones [Video]

Bay Area Rapid Transit, which serves the San Francisco Bay Area, was the latest victim of the hacker group Anonymous, which broke into its Web site Sunday and posted contact information for more than 2,000 subscribers.

In a message posted before the hacking, Anonymous denounced BART's temporary cutoff last week of cellphone service in some of its underground stations to block a protest of the police shooting of a knife-wielding man on a platform.

The group also launched cyberattacks against the Fullerton, Calif., Police Department in retaliation for a fatal confrontation between police and the homeless.

"We are Anonymous, we are your citizens, we are the people, we do not tolerate oppression from any government agency," the hackers wrote online. "BART has proved multiple times that they have no problem exploiting and abusing the people."

The attack was partly successful in Fullerton, but officials in San Francisco shut down MyBART.org, which is a marketing Web site encouraging customers to use the system.

Anonymous posted names of thousands of passengers residing in the Bay Area, along with their addresses and phone numbers. The hackers got hold of the information from the database of more than 50,000 subscribers who receive alerts and other information from MyBART.org. But BART said the site held no financial information.

BART spokesman Jim Allison said that the agency is trying to contact the customers to provide assistance. Allison also said that FBI was investigating the case and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was advising the agency.

Officials from BART were also working out a strategy on Sunday that would block any plans by the protesters to try and disrupt the company’s services on Monday, according to the Los Angeles Times.