An international group of hackers has broken into the website of the San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit District and leaked thousand of user names, addresses, phone numbers and passwords belonging to subscribers, myBART.org reported.
The attack, carried out by the notorious Anonymous group, came after the transport agency threatened to sever mobile phone access to prevent a planned protest a week ago.
Anonymous also said it sympathized with the riots and looting in England last week, describing the disorder as "a product of decades of neglect inflicted on your country by various governments".
"We are Anonymous, we are your citizens, we are the people, we do not tolerate oppression from any government agency," it said.
It apologized "to any citizen that has his information published," the hackers said in a site statement.
"You should go to BART and ask them why your information wasn't secure with them."
An agency spokesman said BART was contacting affected passengers and urged them to change passwords that were revealed in the leak.
