FBI Investigates Cyber Criminals Targeting Celebrities



A website that is believed to have originated in Russia has published private financial information for several well-known American public figures and celebrities. Sarah Palin, Beyonce, Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Mel Gibson, Britney Spears, Donald Trump, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Ashton Kutcher and Kim Kardashian were among those targeted.

In some cases, the information was rather sensitive. What appears to be Michelle Obama’s credit report was posted with a message reading “Blame your husband, we still love you, Michelle.” Other victims of the fraud had their alleged social security numbers revealed, as well as their addresses and phone numbers. Some of the website’s “secret files” included information like credit card bills and information on car payments for stars.

But the accuracy of these reports still has to be verified. At least some of them have been found to be false, such as the phone number for Joe Biden that turned out to be the phone number for a local business in Delaware.

According to local police, the FBI had been investigating the site, exposed.su, for some time before the attack. About 200,000 people visited the site on the night of March 11th, after a link to it was posted via Twitter reading, “Hello world, we are exposed. Our goal is to show you all that this is only one of a few tricks up our sleeve.”

How the site got ahold of the information remains a mystery, but it certainly has many people nervous about how secure their information is on the digital front. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said the attack was “creepy.”

“It’s a creepy thing to do,” he said. “People get mad at us, go on the internet and try to find information about us and post it all on one site.”



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