anonymization

A hacker whose handle on Twitter is "th3j35t3r"--the Jester--claims to have revealed the identity of a main operative involved in the Anti-Sec and Anonymous hacking campaigns. But it's not the first time this operative has supposedly been unmasked, and it probably won't be the last.

In fact, unmasking "Sabu" has become such a hot sport that someone even created what appears to be a parody site about it.

Today, the Jester released documents that the hacker says indicate that Sabu is one Hugo Carvalho of Portugal. The documents (or "dox" in … Read more

Agricultural biotech giant Monsanto confirmed today that it had been victimized by a hacking attack that the online activist collective Anonymous had announced on Tuesday.

"Last month, Monsanto experienced a disruption to our Web sites which appeared to be organized by a cyber-group," Tom Helscher, director of corporate affairs, said in a statement provided to CNET. "In addition, this group also recently published publicly available information on approximately 2,500 individuals involved in the broader global agriculture industry. Contrary to initial media reports, only 10 percent of this publicly available information related to Monsanto's current and … Read more

Military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton today confirmed that it was the victim of an "illegal attack," one day after hackers posted what they said were about 90,000 military e-mail addresses purloined from a server of the consulting firm. Hackers also today said they were targeting Monsanto and oil companies in their protests.

"Booz Allen Hamilton has confirmed today that the posting of certain data files on the Internet yesterday was the result of an illegal attack. We are conducting a full review of the nature and extent of the attack. At this time, we do not … Read more

Google + is making some changes, but hopefully it's only going to keep the G+ train going: estimates have it at 10 million users and on track for 20 million by this weekend. Yeah, no, really. Plus, Netflix makes a change that makes us sing and pushes you toward either DVDs or streaming, but probably not both. Plus, happy anniversary, Neptune!

Hackers flying the AntiSec banner claimed today that they compromised a server at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and have released internal data, including about 90,000 military e-mail addresses.

"We infiltrated a server on their network that basically had no security measures in place. We were able to run our own application, which turned out to be a shell and began plundering some booty," the hackers wrote in a message on the Pastebin file storage site. "Most shiny is probably a list of roughly 90,000 military emails and password hashes (md5, non-salted of course!). We … Read more

Cyberattacks from Anonymous and LulzSec and breaches against everyone from Sony to Lockheed Martin turned the second quarter into "one of the worst on record," according to a new report from Panda Security.

Released this week, Panda's second-quarter report (PDF) examined the security landscape from April to June and highlighted a string of alarming incidents.

Pointing to the attacks by Anonymous and LulzSec against the likes of Sony, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Spanish police, and several government sites, Panda said that the line between "hacktivism" and criminal behavor has gotten fuzzier.

Panda clearly questioned the methods of the new breed of hackers, saying that Anonymous calls its actions "peaceful protests," even though such actions are illegal. Also mincing no words with LulzSec, Panda said that "if you took the most irresponsible and brainless members of Anonymous and put them all together, they would be considered the most refined gentlemen compared to LulzSec."

Though LulzSec recently announced that it would be ending its attacks, the group urged other hackers to carry on the fight via operation Anti-Security, or AntiSec.… Read more

A subgroup of the Anonymous hacker group has launched two WikiLeaks-type Web sites where insiders and other hackers can expose sensitive information from governments and corporations.

The LocalLeaks.tk site is for information related to corruption and wrongdoing at a local level, while the HackerLeaks.tk site is for any other stolen data.

The HackerLeaks site, which launched on June 25, got its first submission on Tuesday--a list of personal details of Orlando, Fla., officials--though the data was posted to the LocalLeaks site, according to Forbes, which reported on the sites on Thursday. The Anonymous hacker group has shut down … Read more

For the third time in a week, hackers have released information pilfered from compromised online accounts of Arizona law enforcement officers.

Under the "AntiSec" umbrella, the combined Anonymous-LulzSec hacker group is targeting government agencies, financial institutions, and other high-profile targets. AntiSec first released e-mails, phone numbers, passwords, and other information belonging to the Arizona Department of Public Safety on June 23. The hackers said they are targeting the police organization to protest "racial-profiling anti-immigrant" policies, specifically SB1070, which makes it a crime to be in Arizona without documentation proving United States residency.

Earlier this week, AntiSec … Read more

The anonymous open letter to Research In Motion management posted online yesterday has apparently brought more employees out of the woodwork.

Today, BGR, the site that posted the original letter from a RIM executive, has two more anonymous letters from RIM folks that it says it has picked out from "dozens" that came in yesterday. Only two were posted today, but BGR says there are more that it may post in the coming weeks.

One letter is from a former employee in the legal department, the other from someone in the BlackBerry services department.

The first said yesterday'… Read more