Hacker group Anonymous may have attacked Minneapolis police website
The Minneapolis Police Department’s website was temporarily disabled after an apparent cyber attack — just days after hackers vowed retribution for the death of George Floyd in police custody.
The department’s website first went down late Saturday, along with the main one for the city of Minneapolis, according to Bloomberg News.
Since then, the websites have been relying on extra security, requiring visitors to submit “captchas” to verify they are not bots, a common tool used by hackers to overwhelm websites.
The apparent attack came just days after the politically charged hacker group Anonymous declared it was targeting the department.
“So it begins …,” the group wrote late Thursday on its unconfirmed Facebook page, alongside an almost four-minute video attacking the department’s “horrific track record of violence and corruption.”
“This travesty has gone on for far too long, and now the people have had enough,” said a figure wearing a hoodie and a Guy Fawkes mask.
“People have had enough of this corruption and violence from an organization that promises to keep them safe,” the figure said in a mechanical voice.
“Unfortunately, we do not trust your corrupt organization to carry out justice, so we will be exposing your many crimes to the world,” the masked figure said.
“We are a legion. Expect us,” it warned.
Officials with the police department and the city did not respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment.