August 15, 2011 - 16:21 AMT
Anonymous targets San Francisco’s BART transport authority

Another high-profile hack this weekend, as the San Francisco BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) transport authority confirms that “at least 2,400″ of its 55k strong member database has been compromised, with hacking collective Anonymous claiming responsibility, Slashgear reported.

Names, emails and passwords – as well as potentially phone numbers and addresses – have been snatched, with the BART site – and services that rely on the transit data it publishes – sluggish on Sunday, August 14, under an ongoing assault.

The upside is that no financial information is stored about each BART user, so those believing themselves to be affected will not have to cancel their credit cards. However, the organization warns that members should be wary of potential phone or mail scams, since their details are potentially in the wild now.

According to a statement release by Anonymous, the hack was in protest over recent shootings by BART police, as well as to highlight the lax security that had been used in the member information database. None of the data had been encrypted, including passwords. “We apologize to any citizen that has his information published” the hackers conclude, “but you should go to BART and ask them why your information wasn’t secure with them.”