MSU hacked

This story was updated Dec. 5.

Wednesday, Dec. 5 — An online hacker claims to have published nearly 1,500 names, email addresses and encrypted passwords and home addresses of people affiliated with Michigan State University.

The hacker, who goes by the name DARWINARE, is affiliated with Anonymous, an affiliated network of hackers worldwide.

MSU Police are investigating the incident, a university spokesman said today in a statement.

"It appears someone has accessed information from an MSU server used to operate a website from the College of Arts and Letters. Account information, limited to email addresses and encrypted passwords, used for that website was copied. MSU IT Services is working with the owners of the website, which as been taken down, to ensure the site is secure. IT Services also is reaching out to those whose account information was copied," MSU Spokesman Kent Cassella said in a statement.

An Internet security website, eSecurity Planet, published the news on its blog today. DARWINARE posted a link to the stolen information on its Twitter page early Tuesday morning. It is unclear why the information was stolen. On Tuesday afternoon DARWINARE posted on Twitter: "If I do not put a reason for my attacks, it's most likely #HFF (Hack For Fun)."

Some of the names and email addresses posted do not turn up on MSU's searchable database — but at least four do.

Hack Read, a website that tracks the latest in Internet security breaches, reports that DARWINARE “has been leaking database of many high profile companies and universities, including the database of University of Colorado. The hacker also played a vital role during #OpIsrael.”