If you’ve been following the news, you might have heard about Philando Castile. On July 6, 2016, he was shot and killed by an officer after being pulled over for resembling a suspect in a robbery.
The officer, Jeronimo Yanez, asked Castile for his license and registration. While reaching for it (and pulling his arm back after Yanez yelled to), he was shot at seven times.
At the time of his death, Castile was accompanied in the vehicle by his girlfriend and his four-year-old daughter. Even more gruesome was the fact that Castile’s girlfriend live-streamed the entire aftermath of the shooting.
The circumstances of the coldblooded event caused mass anger across the country. The video had millions of views by the following morning.
Just recently, that mass anger was resurrected when Yanez was acquitted of his crimes. In retaliation to the Yanez verdict, a hacker decided to target the Minnesota government.
The cyber-attack, confirmed by Minnesota’s Information Technology Services department, involved the theft of emails and passwords found in the Minnesota database.
Calling themselves “Vigilance”, the hacker made their intention clear on twitter with the statement: “Justice for #PhilandoCastile MN.gov and mnstate.edu Hacked.”
According to Vigilance, they gained access to thousands of emails/passwords before mass dumping the sensitive information online. Those that know where to look now have access to the accounts and the information on the accounts.
In an interview, Vigilance declared:
“I thought I had to do something against what I found to be unjust. This was a failure of justice. And his family won’t get the satisfaction of knowing the one who killed Philando is rightly punished. An innocent man died. And a guilty one lives freely.”
Hackers that want their voices to be heard are terrifying, but in this scenario it’s not exactly unwarranted. Vigilance is doing what they think is a justice to Philando Castile. We can only hope it doesn’t bite them in the ass in the future.
