Cyber Incident Victim: Minneapolis Police Department
Date:
May 2020
Location:
United States of America
Summary
A hacker collective associated with Anonymous disabled the Minneapolis Police Department website through a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, rendering it intermittently inaccessible and requiring CAPTCHA verifications via Cloudflare. The action followed a video threat from an Anonymous-affiliated source condemning the police killing of George Floyd and vowing to expose systemic misconduct, amid nationwide protests and civil unrest. While the group did not explicitly claim responsibility, affiliated social media accounts amplified claims of the attack and issued warnings against government entities targeting protesters. Concurrently, journalists covering the Minneapolis protests reported arrests and injuries from police use of pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
The Minneapolis Police Department website and the broader City of Minneapolis municipal site became inaccessible to users late on May 30, 2020, following widespread speculation that the decentralized hacker collective Anonymous had launched a cyberattack in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. This disruption occurred amid escalating nationwide protests and civil unrest over Floyd’s death. User reports indicated both sites intermittently required visitors to complete CAPTCHA verification challenges served through Cloudflare’s security platform, a technical indicator consistent with mitigation efforts against a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. A separate Minneapolis Police Department website, insidempd.com, remained operational during this period. The incident followed a May 28 video posted to a Facebook page affiliated with Anonymous, featuring a masked figure with digitally altered voiceover threatening to expose the department’s "many crimes" and specifically citing Floyd’s death as part of systemic misconduct.
The @LatestAnonNews Twitter account, which purported to represent Anonymous members, retweeted claims attributing the website outages to the group’s actions while amplifying messages characterizing the operation as retaliation against organizations targeting protesters. Though the account did not directly claim responsibility, retweets included statements declaring Anonymous had taken the police site offline and threatened further attacks on government websites. Technical disruptions persisted into early May 31, with sporadic accessibility issues affecting the primary municipal domains. The incident coincided with heightened media attention on police interactions with journalists covering protests in Minneapolis, including arrests of NBC News and CNN personnel, though these events were distinct from the cyber disruption. Public discussion of Anonymous’ reemergence after years of relative inactivity also fueled social media trends referencing the television series "Mr. Robot," which fictionalized similar hacktivist activities. Former officer Derek Chauvin had been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on May 29, two days prior to the website disruptions.