The FBI has reportedly swooped in on a data protection case involving the leak of thousands of confidential records of judges, police officers and other law enforcement officials in South Florida.
On February 16, Jess Swanson of the Broward Palm Beach New Times reported that a former Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office deputy, Mark Dougan, had been hacked, and the resulting data published on a site registered in Russia called PBSOTalk.com.
Dougan said that the hack was carried out by a Russian friend of his that goes by the handle “BadVolf,” in retaliation for how the department treated Dougan in an internal affairs case. He said that he had reported a fellow officer for corruption, after which the department began harassing him, he alleges, drumming him out of the force and hacking his own accounts.
Further, almost one month after BadVolf stole the confidential records, some of the hacked databases are still not secured, leaving him an open door, he told Databreaches.net. DataBreaches.net contacted the still-vulnerable agencies to warn them that they needed to secure their compromised servers, and posted redacted screencaps taken from unnamed tables.
“Within minutes of posting the article, this blogger received a phone call from the FBI,” the writer noted.
Then, on March 14, Dougan alerted DataBreaches.net that the FBI had raided his house. He gave the blogging site a copy of the warrant, which indicates the charges relate to Title 18, Section 371 (Conspiracy to Defraud the United States), Title 18, Section 1030 (Fraud and related activity in connection with computers), and Title 18, Section 1028 (Fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents, authentication features, and information).
Dougan wrote the site about what he says happened:
“Today at about 7:30 am, I noticed a suspicious vehicle sitting in my parking lot. I went out to check it out, and it was the FBI, who jumped out and handcuffed me. They told me I was not under arrest, but they were going to search my home. At the moment, they are going through every last possession and seizing anything electronic. All computers, servers, and even my mobile phone.
This is clearly an abuse of federal power in retaliation for my support of the people that were siding with me. These people have let local law enforcement illegally abuse their authority with no checks and balances for the last 6 years in the form of illegally investigating me, illegally hacking my email and social media accounts, and such. When I made numerous complaints, they turned a blind eye and let it continue. The only people in my corner were the individual(s) who posted the confidential information. The people must fight back against a corrupt government, if that government will not stand up for the people.”
The FBI has not confirmed the events.
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