[LINK] Hackers release 90,000 military emails

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Hackers release 90,000 military emails
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/hackers-release-90000-military-emails-20110712-1hbd0.html
SMH
Asher Moses
July 12, 2011

In what they dubbed "military meltdown Monday", a hacking collective has 
published 90,000 military email addresses and passwords stolen from a 
large US contractor.

The group, a spin-off of Anonymous that includes members of the now 
defunct hacking group Lulz Sec, claims it broke into the servers of 
technology contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and stole the login details. 
They have been published on BitTorrent file sharing sites for anyone to 
download.

"We infiltrated a server on their network that basically had no security 
measures in place," Anonymous said in an online statement.
Advertisement: Story continues below

Anonymous describes the hack as one of their biggest ever and promises 
more break-ins to highlight poor security practices in the intelligence 
community. It comes days after Anonymous hacked another government 
contractor and follows other attacks on government agencies around the 
world.

The group has become increasingly brazen. "ATTN Intelligence community: 
Your contractors have failed you. Tomorrow is the beginning," one 
Anonymous member, Sabu, wrote on Twitter the day before the attack on 
Booz Allen.

In a tweet, Booz Allen, which is led by several former National Security 
Agency and CIA staffers, said that as part of its security policy it 
generally did not "comment on specific threats or actions taken against 
our systems".

Sophos security expert Chester Wisniewski said the attack would be 
embarrassing for Booz Allen but the real impact would be on the military.

"These 90,000+ individuals will need to reset their passwords, and 
ensure any systems that they shared these passwords with are changed," 
he said.

The Pentagon said it was aware of the incident and was coordinating with 
other federal agencies.

The attack comes after a similar break-in by the same group of another 
US government contractor, IRC Federal, which does work for the FBI and 
the military. The contractor's website was defaced and Anonymous claimed 
it also stole documents and emails from its internal databases.

It also claims to have stolen details enabling it to break into other 
government agencies and contractors and uncovered "shady practices" and 
potentially illegal surveillance systems.

One of the documents it uncovered supposedly included a proposal to 
develop for the FBI a "Special Identities Modernisation (SIM) Project", 
which is intended to reduce terrorist and criminal activity by 
protecting identities of "trusted individuals" and revealing the names 
of people who pose a risk to the US.

Other stolen documents include Justice Department fingerprinting 
contracts and military biometrics projects. Most of the dump was 
published online.

As part of a campaign it calls AntiSec, Anonymous has been targeting 
what it calls corrupt corporations and governments.

The campaign began following the arrests of 15 alleged Anonymous members 
in Italy and Switzerland last week. It follows other arrests of alleged 
group members, prompting Anonymous to take down numerous European 
government websites.

"If you place any value on freedom, then stop working for the oligarchy 
and start working against it," Anonymous said in a message to IRC Federal.

"Stop aiding the corporations and a government which uses unethical 
means to corner vast amounts of wealth and proceed to flagrantly abuse 
their power. Together, we have the power to change this world for the 
better."

Anonymous has promised more hacks in coming days and one member, Sabu, 
wrote on Twitter: "I think people are confused. What we did today was 
more patriotic than wearing a cute little American flag pin. And we're 
not even American."

Much of the recent hacking by Anonymous has been in support of free 
speech and in defence of Wikileaks. Last year it famously knocked out 
the websites of Visa and Mastercard after the companies blocked 
Wikileaks from accepting donations.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, still facing extradition to Sweden 
over sexual assault charges, was due to appear in court in Britain today.

Anonymous members have told The Guardian they could attack the 
Metropolitan police computer systems and those controlled by the British 
judicial system in response to treatment of Assange and revelations in 
the News Limited phone hacking scandals that journalists at News of the 
World bribed police.

Lulz Sec and Anonymous between them have compromised scores of servers 
and databases. Sites including shouldichangemypassword.com and 
hacknotifier.com allow people to check whether their email addresses 
have been compromised in any of the recent hacks.

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
email:	brd at iimetro.com.au
website:	www.drbrd.com



-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1388 / Virus Database: 1516/3756 - Release Date: 07/10/11