Syracuse Police are coming to grips with the reality of the internet age. Their public website has been hacked. YNN's Bill Carey says the group claiming responsibility is well known to authorities worldwide.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- ”Hello citizens of the world. We are anonymous.”

They are faceless, leaderless by design. The organization exists only in the ether. The internet is the gathering place for those addressing a host of complaints.

It was in this world of "Anonymous" that the Syracuse Police Department became a target.

On Wednesday night, usernames and passwords utilized by Syracuse Police personnel on a police department website began appearing on another site frequented by hackers. There was never any access to police files or any sensitive information contained on police department servers.

“Because it's a completely different system. The internal website is completely encrypted and has a lot of security on it,” said Syracuse Police Department Sgt. Thomas Connellan.

Syracuse was one of three police department sites hit as part of what was called Operation Piggybank. The supposed cause for the targeting? The long delay in response to complaints in the Bernie Fine case.

“We may have been selected due to the notoriety of that one particular case. The national notoriety,” Connellan said.

The case is now under investigation by both the FBI and the Computer Crimes Division of the New York State Police. But how much progress has been made isn't known.

Connellan said, “We're very early on in this thing. I don’t know whether, in our case, they left any crucial evidence behind. Any kind of a trail. I just don't know that. Hopefully, but I just don't know.”

It is unclear just when the police department site may be returned to service. The experts say in a wired world, Anonymous shows no signs of going away.

”We are Anonymous. We are legion. Expect us.