A California law enforcement group called Tuesday for a legislative investigation into the hacking of a statewide peace officers union website by a shadowy international group calling itself Anonymous.
The request by the Peace Officers of California was sent to leaders of the Senate and Assembly public safety committees on the eve of the Legislature's return to the Capitol for 2012.
The issue was sparked by a New Year's Day story on KXTV-Channel 10, which reported that the Anonymous group had released names, addresses and phone numbers of various members, plus credit card information from the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association's online gift store.
Anonymous claims to have gained access to information regarding more than 2,500 CSLEA members, according to the report.
Officials of the union could not be reached immediately for comment Tuesday by The Bee.
The group that called Tuesday for a legislative investigation, Peace Officers of California, is a rival subset of the CSLEA that has expressed its desire to split from the union.
Peace Officers of California has expressed concern that the hacking occurred in November and that many members never were informed of it.
CSLEA sent a letter in November to members that it concluded were affected by the security breach, but Peace Officers of California said that every CSLEA member should have been contacted, but were not.
"One must conclude that every CSLEA member's confidential information may be in jeopardy, as well as the inter-departmental mail for every state employer of CSLEA members," the letter said.
Peace Officers of California said the hacking could have affected websites or e-mail systems of the California Department of Justice, Department of Motor Vechicles, Department of Insurance, Cal-Fire and other state agencies.
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