SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The Salt Lake City police department is asking their tipsters and informants to be careful.
A hacker took their personal information from the departments website two days ago.
Hundreds of people turned to the Salt Lake City police website to report all sorts of crimes.
A hacker bruised the relationship between the Salt Lake City police department and these informants to protest an graffiti bill on Utah's capitol hill.
The hacker promised not to release the information, but there are no guarantees.
"It's kind of scary to know someone can break in and get names and information," said Crystal Ie.
"The security obviously needs to be better so that people aren't able to hack into the system," said Daniel Shaw.
The Salt Lake City police department is asking its online informants to change passwords used to submit tips, but especially if they use the same tips to access other secure websites.
"The last thing we want is for any citizen to be concerned about being in harms way let alone have something negative happen to them," said Salt Lake City public information officer Shawn Josephson.
Josephson says he know who hacked into the department's computer system, but vows his department will do everything possible to protect the people affected.
The hacker has not revealed any information about confidential sources as of Thursday night.
The Salt Lake City police department's website is down until it can be put securely back online.
The hacker got what he wanted. Lawmakers killed the graffiti bill because of his attack on the police department's website.
