Mayor of St. Louis's website hacked by 'Occupy Wall St' sympathizer

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - A hacker broke into the mayor of St. Louis's website and posted a message in support of anti-Wall Street protesters who are facing eviction from a city park they occupied five weeks ago.

"You can remove the movement from the city, but you cannot remove the movement from your systems!" the message posted late on Tuesday on Mayor Francis Slay's website said.

The hacker, who said he was part of the activist hacker group Anonymous, also posted contact information for hundreds of Slay's political backers and more than 2,000 of his emails.

Dozens of demonstrators have camped out in a downtown St. Louis since October 1 as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality. Last week, the mayor said the campers would have to leave and entered talks with protesters.

Anonymous has taken credit for infiltrating the computer network of the transit system in Oakland, California, where anti-Wall Street demonstrations shut down the port temporarily last week.

Colleen Kelly, an Occupy St. Louis participant, said the group had not adopted a strategy of using hacking to advance its goals. "Anonymous works by itself," Kelly added.

The mayor's office did not blame the protesters for the hacking. "I think the people here are a lot more positive than this. I suspect they don't know who it was," said spokesman Richard Callow.

(Reporting by Bruce Olson; Editing by Anthony Boadle)

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