BOSTON, MA &#8211 Federal and local police are searching for the computer-savvy crew who sent Boston police officers’ email access codes out into cyberspace, the patrolmen’s union boss said yesterday.

“I will confirm that it has happened, and there is an active federal and local investigation into it,” Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association President Thomas Nee told the Herald.

On Friday, members of the international hackers group Anonymous aimed their cyber-wrath at law enforcement. Claiming that the police serve only to protect the wealthiest, most influential Americans, the group made public the passwords and user names of 1,000 Boston patrolmen and the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 1,000 Birmingham, Ala., police officers.

The hackers, in a chilling message to the public, said the Boston data dump was retaliation for the “unprovoked mass arrests and brutality experienced by those at Occupy Boston.” Two weeks ago, Boston police arrested 141 members of Occupy Boston, a leaderless pro-democracy group that has taken over a stretch of downtown’s Rose Kennedy Greenway. The arrests came after some members of the growing group moved into a second section of the park.

Boston police yesterday acknowledged the security breach and warned officers to “change passwords to all Internet and wireless devices.”

Occupy Boston members told the Herald they did not ask Anonymous to do the hacking. But those same Occupy Boston members refused to publicly criticize the powerful shadow group, saying they didn’t want their own emails hacked.

From The Boston Herald.