Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Carmel on the Case: Porn on police website

Posted: 10/02/07

Reported by:

Carmel Cafiero

Producer:

Kelli Garlock

Contact:

kgarlock@wsvn.com

Archived Reports:

All Carmel on the Case

The outpouring of sympathy and support for fallen law enforcement officers reflects how most in the community feel about their commitment and sacrifice, but for the men and women of the Coral Springs Police Department comes a reminder that not everyone holds their profession in such high regard.

WSVN -- The website for their union, The Fraternal Order of Police, or FOP was attacked by a hacker.

Click on a link for "Members in Sickness and Distress" and porn popped up.

In fact, multiple links led to multiple sites with pornographic photos.

Some claimed to be pictures of teenagers.

Sgt. Joe McHugh: "One hundred percent offensive. This could be a different avenue of attack on law enforcement without a doubt."

FOP member Sergeant Joe McHugh says they didn't even know about the hacking until Seven News called.

The pictures are so graphic there is just no way to show you most of the photos that were on the site.

Sgt. Joe McHugh: "That is absolutely astonishing, it really is, that someone would take the time to do something like that. Like I said, someone who did something like that has no heart, no morals."

He says the site was designed to help union members and their families.

Sgt. Joe McHugh: "There is a lot of good sites on there, like fundraisers for fallen officers, wives of fallen officers, where people actually go on there and give donations to those families of those fallen officers."

Carmel Cafiero: "Hackers have hit everyone from the military to high schools. Tracking them is never easy, but McHugh says every man and woman in his department would really like to find out who did this to their site and why."

Rob Brownstein, a computer expert says hackers often do so just for fun.

Others have something to sell.

Ron Brownstein: "As far as websites are concerned, depending on the server, they are very easily hacked into."

And while the hacking that happened to the union was embarrassing, Brownstein says it could have been much worse.

Ron Brownstein: "Sometimes they destroy computers, depending on the nature of the hacking that's done, so it costs business and consumers a lot of money."

The FOP immediately disabled the offending links and will now do what it can to find the hacker.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR IF YOU HAVE A STORY FOR CARMEL TO INVESTIGATE:

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E-mail: clue@wsvn.com

(Copyright 2007 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

 

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