Was that in the manifesto?
Hactivist group Anonymous has attacked a US security company in revenge for its principal's claim that he identified some of the group's key players.
The group, which recently launched a kind of manifesto claiming its hacking activities were in fact a legitimate form of protest, has so far limited its attacks to firms that blocked WikiLeaks or suppressed information, yet this attack seems to have clear motives of self preservation and revenge.
According to a Forbes blog, just as the Super Bowl was kicking off on Sunday evening, 5 supporters of Anonymous' elite arm called AnonOps reportedly launched their own offensive, bringing down the website of small Washington DC-based security firm HBGary Federal.
The group took control of the firm's CEO, Aaron Barr's Twitter account, which includes a number of insulting racial slurs and homophobic posts from the group. One of the tamer Tweets reads:"We want Aaron Barr fired and to admit defeat publicly. We never want to hear from him again. Dispose of him."
Just one hour later, they also reportedly released a screenshot, which reads: "Let us teach you a lesson you'll never forget: you don't mess with Anonymous" and was intended as a placeholder for the security firm's website.
The hackers also apparently got hold of over 50,000 of Barr's personal emails that it shared via Twitter, plus financial details for HBGary. It had reportedly vowed to delete the company's backup servers.
Barr became an Anonymous target after he told The FT he claimed he had identified key members of the group including a co-founder in the US and other senior members scattered across Europe and Australia. Barr reportedly said he had identified the people by picking up clues to their identity via monitored emails, Facebook and IRC chat.
While Barr has apparently said he had no plans to give the information to the police, one of AnonOps members who was involved in the attack on Barr's firm, told Forbes that he had learnt that Barr had intended on selling his research to the FBI and a meeting was scheduled for today.
The hackers reportedly discovered that Barr had been planning on handing over around a dozen Anonymous members' names and addresses in return for a fee that was to be negotiated.
However, Anonymous members have apparently made the list public via Barr's own Twitter account and claimed that most of the details are wrong and the names ‘random'. The group also Tweeted Barr's mobile number, address, social security number and his personal emails.
While many people have supported Anonymous' actions against multinational firms who blocked WikiLeaks as well as governments of certain countries, it is not known whether the group will find the same kind of support from targeting a small firm for arguably relatively personal reasons.
However, Anonymous reportedly believes its actions are justified and told Forbes: "It is harsh, but we're harsh people. We felt Anon needed a break from seriousness for a while, we understood that Anon was getting paranoid about recent FBI raids and companies such as HBGary lurking our chats, so we've given all of Anonymous a message: we will fight back."
