A website has posted what appears to
be private financial information about stars, including rapper Jay-Z and
his wife Beyonce, and government officials.
Mel
Gibson, Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton were among the
11 well-known names whose financial details were released.
The officials who were targeted included FBI Director Robert Mueller and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, whose social security numbers and credit reports were published.
Pages posted on Vice President Joe Biden and the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not include credit reports, but did reveal addresses and other sensitive information.
While government officials often have to disclose details on their finances – and celebrity divorces sometimes feature public financial data – the information posted online exceeds those disclosures.
Social security numbers are rarely included in public records any more because they can be used for identity theft.
Los Angeles police said they had launched an investigation into the website, which had an internet suffix originally assigned to Russia.
The site did not state how the information had been obtained or why the 11 people targeted were chosen, describing the records only as “secret files”.
Several of the purported credit reports appear to have been generated last week.
Representatives for each person targeted either declined to comment on the accuracy of the information that was posted, or they did not return messages seeking comment.
Several of the website’s pages featured unflattering pictures of the celebrities or government officials whose information was posted.
The site’s page on Beck includes a taunting reference to former officer Christopher Dorner, who was killed in a shootout after killing four people over several days last month.
Beck’s page included the message “(hash)YouCantCornerTheDorner” and an image of a woman protesting police corruption.
Mel
Gibson, Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton were among the
11 well-known names whose financial details were released.The officials who were targeted included FBI Director Robert Mueller and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, whose social security numbers and credit reports were published.
Pages posted on Vice President Joe Biden and the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not include credit reports, but did reveal addresses and other sensitive information.
While government officials often have to disclose details on their finances – and celebrity divorces sometimes feature public financial data – the information posted online exceeds those disclosures.
Social security numbers are rarely included in public records any more because they can be used for identity theft.
Los Angeles police said they had launched an investigation into the website, which had an internet suffix originally assigned to Russia.
The site did not state how the information had been obtained or why the 11 people targeted were chosen, describing the records only as “secret files”.
Several of the purported credit reports appear to have been generated last week.
Representatives for each person targeted either declined to comment on the accuracy of the information that was posted, or they did not return messages seeking comment.
Several of the website’s pages featured unflattering pictures of the celebrities or government officials whose information was posted.
The site’s page on Beck includes a taunting reference to former officer Christopher Dorner, who was killed in a shootout after killing four people over several days last month.
Beck’s page included the message “(hash)YouCantCornerTheDorner” and an image of a woman protesting police corruption.
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