Hackers target Dubai Police for ‘spying’

The group who hacked Dubai Police's social media pages on Sunday have claimed they did it to expose breaches of UAE citizens' privacy.

ABU DHABI // The hackers who took control of Dubai Police's social media pages on Sunday have claimed they did it to expose "spying" by the authorities.

“We targeted Dubai Police because of their consistent efforts to keep a close eye on everyone,” they said in an email to The National, claiming to be from the “The Lulz.”

“This must end. If not for our generation then the next.”

The hackers said two people were involved in the attack on Dubai Police.

They claimed that they would “attack anyone that violates the people’s privacy”, and “our motivation is to wake people up and show them that this is not right, to show that the people have a voice”.

The email quoted Edward Snowden: “A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.”

The group, which identified itself on twitter as @TheHorsemenLulz, posted several messages on Sunday claiming to have hacked Dubai Police’s Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest.

The hackers would not confirm where they are based.

They claimed that they were associated with the “hacktism” movement known as Anonymous, but claimed they would join forces with other groups for future attacks.

They said it was "fairly easy" to gain access to the accounts and that one of the accounts had a simple password "abc123".

Following the attacks, Dubai Police regained control of their accounts later on Sunday.

On Monday afternoon the hackers claimed to have access to email addresses used by Dubai Police.

It also claimed that another Twitter account, @Anonimer15, was associated with the group.