[Anonymous] hacks US military contractor site

[coolness]

Cyberactivist sub-group "AntiSec" penetrates database maintained by consultancy firm Booz Allen Hamilton

Anonymous, the international cyberactivist network, has announced the release of 90,000 military email logins which its members obtained in one of the biggest-ever hacking operations.

The group promised that the publication of the documents on several websites on Monday is only the first in a series of leaks intended to show the intelligence community's vulnerability.

This round of emails comes from Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consultancy firm based in Virginia, United States.

Booz Allen Hamilton is active in the Middle East and North Africa, with its regional headquarters in the United Arab Emirates.

"With a multidisciplinary approach, Booz Allen provides robust cybersecurity solutions to a broad range of clients and industries, enabling them to confidently pursue the opportunities offered by the cyber revolution," reads a statement on the company's website.

The company could not be reached for comment by Al Jazeera. On its Twitter feed it wrote: "As part of @BoozAllen security policy, we generally do not comment on specific threats or actions taken against our systems."

A flurry of commentary around the operation began immediately on the microblogging site Twitter under the hashtag #MilitaryMeltdownMonday.

There were hints that other similar military or intelligence contractors may be next to catch attention in the emerging "Antisec" movement.

"ATTN Intelligence community: Your contractors have failed you. Tomorrow is the beginning," an Anon known as Sabu wrote on Twitter under the handle of @anonymouSabu.

Sabu's tweets, widely retweeted by other Anons, promised "two of the biggest releases for Anonymous in the last four years".

Hours earlier, Anons breached the security of IRC Federal, an IT contractor that works for federal agencies in the US, including the FBI and NASA.

A representative at IRC Federal's head office in West Virginia told Al Jazeera the company had reported the incident to the authorities and had no further comment.

He said it was not clear why the firm, which employs less than 35 people, had been targeted.

A statement from Anonymous called on the firm's employees to stop working for "corporations and a government which uses unethical means to corner vast amounts of wealth".

"They [IRC] brag about their multi-million dollar partnership with the FBI, Army, Navy, NASA, and the Department of Justice, selling out their "skills" to the US empire. So we laid nuclear waste to their systems, owning their pathetic windows box, dropping their databases and private emails, and defaced their professional looking website," the statement said.

The amorphous group is in constant evolution, though freedom of speech remains an underlying preoccupation.

It rushed to the defence of WikiLeaks, launching high-profile attacks against financial companies when they responded to governments' requests to cut the whistle-blowing website's income.

The latest operations come on the eve of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal hearing against his extradition.
Anonymous' propaganda poster for Operation Egypt, its solidarity campaign in support of Egypt's street protests

With its support for the Arab uprisings, it went from being largely based in Western countries to gaining popularity amongst like-minded activists in North Africa and the Middle East.

Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist at NYU's media department, said that Anonymous has "set the bar very high" in the buildup to this latest series of operations.

"If it is indeed a splash," she said of this week's operations, "I think it’ll be a defining moment."

The hacking of Booz Allen Hamilton and IRC Federal had been conducted in what appeared to be a more open, inclusive manner than similar hacking activities in the past, she said.

"With every twist and turn, new possibilities have opened up."

Anonymous' regular online meeting place, the Anonops Internet Relay Chat (IRC), a secure form of online chat room, has been taken offline by "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks carried out by an unknown group. The site, where Anons discuss their operations has been unavailable since Friday and was still unavailable at the time of writing.

In recent months, the movement has come under growing international pressure. Its members have been arrested in Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, while in the US, its members have been targeted by subpoenas.

Yet, as Monday's operation demonstrated, the Anons are growing bolder than ever. A defiant press release followed the crackdown in Italy, reiterating that the groups' lack of leadership or structure made it impossible to dismantle.

"All Anonymous members operate at the same level. Those arrested are not 'dangerous hackers' as the media calls them, but people like you. They have been arrested while peacefully protesting for their and your rights. Our protest will continue louder than ever."

source

 

[AP Hacker]

So the Lulzboat sets for the horizon, never to be seen again, and Anonymous steps right back up to the plate..

Popcorn anybody?

 

[The Catboy]

So the Lulzboat sets for the horizon, never to be seen again, and Anonymous steps right back up to the plate..

Popcorn anybody?

I'll take some popcorn. This could be interesting!

 

[SamAsh07]

Fun times are back

It's like Anon wanted to give LulzSec the spotlight when they entered into the fray, now it's back to Anon business. Sony must be fastening their seat belts, you never know

 

[1234turtles]

anonymous are idiots, they should have quit while they were ahead.

 

[BobTheJoeBob]

It just looks like a few of people who want to copy lulzsec. I really wish they would just go.

 

[machomuu]

I expect Lulzsec to come help the military against Anonymous. It's their job as the anti-hero.

 

[Gh0sti]

um lulz-sec was apart of anon broke off for 50 days now they have merged again and are under antisec as anon why would they help the military? why cant they just die already

 

[SamAsh07]

um lulz-sec was apart of anon broke off for 50 days now they have merged again and are under antisec as anon why would they help the military? why cant they just die already

As stupid as it may sound, this guy might be right. Maybe LulzSec was a group derived from Anon to show that they themselves can also attract alot of attention (maybe there was a debate in Anon over who is a better hacker?), after getting that attention, they returned back to their roots, thus the rebirth of Anon hacks.

 

[junkerde]

anon sucks dude, like really for real

 

[shakirmoledina]

i hope these guys get caught. what do they get for these things and they asking for trouble if they start with the military.

 

[Zetta_x]

Jesus... Anonymous is an idea not a group, stop saying these people are FROM anonymous and start saying people ARE anonymous.

There is no evidence that these attempts are related to any of the previous hacking attempts and there are thousands of people who are capable of doing this.

The military had some vulnerable exploits, thank you anonymous people for not only showing them their exploits but giving them motivation to make sure they do a better job with their security.

----

a·non·y·mous/əˈnänəməs/Adjective
1. (of a person) Not identified by name; of unknown name.
2. Having no outstanding, individual, or unusual features; unremarkable or impersonal.

All of you are anonymous so gtfo

----

Everysingle time the phrase anonymous pops up, the average user automatically assumes there is some online cult named anonymous doing this. They use anonymouse based on the definition not to label a group

 

[FluffyLunamoth]

Jesus... Anonymous is an idea not a group, stop saying these people are FROM anonymous and start saying people ARE anonymous.

There is no evidence that these attempts are related to any of the previous hacking attempts and there are thousands of people who are capable of doing this.

The military had some vulnerable exploits, thank you anonymous people for not only showing them their exploits but giving them motivation to make sure they do a better job with their security.

----

a·non·y·mous/??nän?m?s/Adjective
1. (of a person) Not identified by name; of unknown name.
2. Having no outstanding, individual, or unusual features; unremarkable or impersonal.

All of you are anonymous so gtfo

I ain't anonymous. I give out my name regularily.

The fact that this is still going on proves 2 things:

1: People are STILL unhappy enough to do stuff like this
2: Our government is STILL too incompetent to keep this stuff from happening.

 

[AlanJohn]

Wait, the US military doesn't have a copy of Kaspersky?

 

[SamAsh07]

Jesus... Anonymous is an idea not a group, stop saying these people are FROM anonymous and start saying people ARE anonymous.

There is no evidence that these attempts are related to any of the previous hacking attempts and there are thousands of people who are capable of doing this.

The military had some vulnerable exploits, thank you anonymous people for not only showing them their exploits but giving them motivation to make sure they do a better job with their security.

----

a·non·y·mous/??nän?m?s/Adjective
1. (of a person) Not identified by name; of unknown name.
2. Having no outstanding, individual, or unusual features; unremarkable or impersonal.

All of you are anonymous so gtfo

----

Everysingle time the phrase anonymous pops up, the average user automatically assumes there is some online cult named anonymous doing this. They use anonymouse based on the definition not to label a group

Are you done? Ok now listen, a number of people can unite and name their group "Anonymous", sheesh.

 

[Joe88]

Wait, the US military doesn't have a copy of Kaspersky?

its not the US military, its a hired contractor by the US military

 

[Youkai]

i think its a good think that groups like this do hack into the systems and tell the people ... think about real bad organisations who steal the data and noone never knows until it might be to late and these guys have something they could use ...

so better a weird group of freaks gets the data and tell the people ... even thaught it would be better not to publish, well at least like this they prove there really are holes in the security.


dunno if someone knows the "Chaos Computer Club", these guys were famous some years ago for they hacking attacks now they acutally work for many companys to help them against other hackers ...
so whats the best way to fend of a hacker ? an even better hacker ^^

 

[coolness]

lol Anon is not the real leader of anonymous i talked with a friend his name is kyeroz en he have contact with the hackers group he told me no one is the leader there....?

 

[megawalk]

oddly...i'll just wait for that ICBM to blow em up 0_0" dunno why

 

[machomuu]

a·non·y·mous/??nän?m?s/Adjective
1. (of a person) Not identified by name; of unknown name.
2. Having no outstanding, individual, or unusual features; unremarkable or impersonal.

All of you are anonymous so gtfo

No we're not all anon. As it says in the definition, we are identifiable by name. You know me as machomuu, therefore if someone else had my avatar, profile pic, and all of my same info, you'd know who I am because of my username which cannot be duplicated.