Anonymous is still at it. The infamous hacktivist group’s latest addition to their large list of victims is government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. They are calling the attack “Military Meltdown Monday” and the highlight of this breach of security is a cache of 90,000 military emails.
Booz Allen Hamilton has many million of dollars in contractual work on defense and homeland security for the U.S. federal government. They also work with foreign governments on occasion. Key personnel includes many current and former top-level members of the NSA and the CIA. With connections acronyms like these, you would think Booz Allen Hamilton’s security were a little more serious business.
According to Anonymous’ statement, breaking in wasn’t very difficult. Keeping in line with the pirate theme, the hackers infiltrated a server with no security measures which they refered to as a “puny wooden barge”, and began to “plunder booty” which they released on the Pirate Bay.
The haul yielded 90,000 emails and passwords from personnel in the Marine Corps, Homeland security, SOCOM and other government agencies. Anonymous highlighted several key political scandals and civil rights issues the government contractor was involved with such as the NSA’s warrantless surveillance controversy. On top of that, they found a connection between the defense contractor and HBGary which was previously hacked by the same group. Both companies were involved with a project they dubbed “Operation Metal Gear” which they claim aims to essentially destroy the anonymity of the online world.
The hackers also managed to grab some source code which they deemed insignificant and subsequently wiped from the defense contractors’ system. Possibly most terrifying for government agencies is the promise that Anonymous will be back with more. The hackers said they found “maps and keys for various other treasure chests buried on the islands of government agencies, federal contractors and shady whitehat companies.”
This brazen and unchallenged attack aimed at a a large, possibly global, intelligence community makes one wonder when governments are going to get serious in pursuing these hacktivists.
