Crime Stoppers alleged victim of cyber crime

Hackers allegedly penetrated the Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers website this morning but the society president wants to assure the public all tips and information submitted are completely safe.

David Demeyere says www.crimestoppers.net is primarily a posting site for media features including wanted criminals and unsolved crimes, and private information given by tipsters is secured within an encrypted database that is not connected to the website in any way.

Crime Stoppers was informed by their web provider the file system of the site was penetrated through a file uploaded to the website from an attacker located in Morocco. The uploaded file was the vehicle through which hosting site files were located and deleted. The hacker then uploaded the files to his or her own webpage, boasting of the attack.

An investigation into the attacker's history of exploits suggests defacing of crimestoppers.net was random.

The site is restored and an investigation continues to understand how the exploit occurred and which steps need to be taken to prevent such an event from occurring in the future.