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website goes offline where stolen credit reports of US celebrities, politicians were published

By: The Associated Press

Posted: 03/20/2013 8:02 AM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 03/20/2013 2:55 PM

WASHINGTON - The website where hackers had published what it said were credit reports for Michelle Obama, the attorney general, CIA director, FBI director and other politicians and celebrities has been shut down by Russian Internet officials. The site has been inaccessible since late Tuesday.

Whoever was behind the website published a rambling statement earlier this week described as "our final message" and said the efforts were intended for "entertainment and laughs." The note was signed off with the message "from Russia with love." Before it shut down, the website published what it said were the credit reports of 29 politicians and celebrities. The most recent one, published on Friday, appeared to be the stolen credit report for CIA Director John Brennan.

The company that managed the registration for the website's Internet address told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it withdrew the address because it could not confirm identifying information that was provided when the site was registered. The director for Webnames.ru, Sergei Sharikov, said in a statement that the leaks about personal financial records "made it necessary to interfere."

The FBI, Secret Service and the Los Angeles Police Department were investigating the theft of the credit reports, which included Social Security numbers, dates of birth, previous home addresses and monthly account balances on credit cards, mortgages and car loans.

An initial investigation showed that the hackers accessed the credit bureau systems by correctly entering personal details about their victims to impersonate them and generate the credit reports.

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