The Hacker News - Cybersecurity News and Analysis: Search results for hacktivist

The hacktivist group Anonymous has launched a massive cyber attack against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — the radical Islamic terrorist group who were  responsible for the terrorist attack against the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo . With huge social media presence, ISIS is the most active terror group on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram accounts. But unluckily, over dozens of Facebook and Twitter accounts linked to ISIS has recently been taken by the Anonymous group. In a video appeared on Youtube, Anonymous group and RedCult announced the operation  #OpISIS  and claimed to have carried out cyber attack against hundreds of Twitter and Facebook accounts used by ISIS for its own propaganda and to recruit new members. According to the video, Operation  #OpISIS  is coordinated by "Muslims, Christians, Jews"  alike and a masked individual discusses the aim of the campaign. They are " hackers, crackers, Hacktivist, phi

Barrett Brown , a journalist, formerly served as an unofficial spokesman for the hacktivist collective Anonymous, finally walked free from prison on Tuesday morning after serving more than four years behind bars. The Dallas-born investigative journalist was arrested in 2012 from his home while he was in the middle of an online chat after posting tweets and YouTube video threatening revenge against an FBI agent. Brown, 35, initially attracted the law enforcement attention in 2011 when he shared a hyperlink to an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel where Anonymous members were distributing stolen information from the hack at security think tank Strategic Forecasting or Stratfor. The hack allegedly exposed 200 gigabytes of data, which included email addresses and credit card information from Stratfor clients, including the US Army, US Air Force, and Miami Police Department. Originally facing sentence to more than 100 years in prison, Brown was convicted in January 2015 under

After targeting the Islamic State (ISIS) group in the wake of Deadly terror attacks in Paris, hacktivist group Anonymous has now turned its attention to controversial US presidential candidate Donald Trump . The hacktivist group has declared war against Donald Trump following his recent radical speech stating he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Anonymous vs. Donald Trump On Wednesday, Anonymous slams Trump by posting a YouTube video in which a man in a Guy Fawkes mask says: "Donald Trump, it has come to our attention that you wish to ban all muslims from entering the United States. Muslims and Islam are not the problem. This policy will have grave impact and will serve only to fuel the emotions that ISIS uses to recruit muslims. Certainly ISIS will use this to their advantage in their social media campaigns. Instead of focusing on the innocent, the focus should be set on ways to protect them from the radicalized individuals they flee. Dona

The mother of alleged Anonymous hacktivist Barrett Brown has pleaded guilty to helping her son hide two laptop computers from federal investigators. Brown's mother, Karen McCutchin , pleaded guilty last week to a charge of obstructing the execution of a search warrant. She faces a maximum sentence of 12 months in prison and a $100,000 fine. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. On March 6, 2012, officers with the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Brown's Dallas, Texas apartment in an attempt to execute a search warrant for computers that could contain information involving hacktivist group Anonymous and LulzSec. The feds hadn't found all the computers they were looking for during a search of Brown's apartment that morning and Brown, located at his mother's house, refused to volunteer them. Karen McCutchin Plea Agreement Barrett Brown is expected to stand trial in September, at which point he will have spent an entire year behind bars witho

The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday announced updates on two separate cases involving cyberattacks—a Swiss hacktivist and a Russian hacker who planned to plant malware in the Tesla company. A Swiss hacker who was involved in the intrusion of cloud-based surveillance firm Verkada and exposed camera footage from its customers was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday with conspiracy, wire fraud, and identity theft. Till Kottmann (aka "deletescape" and "tillie crimew"), 21, of Lucerne, Switzerland, and their co-conspirators were accused of hacking dozens of companies and government agencies since 2019 by targeting their "git" and other source code repositories and posting the proprietary data of more than 100 entities on a website called git[.]rip, according to the indictment. Kottmann is alleged to have cloned the source code and other confidential files containing hard-coded administrative credentials and access keys, using th

There was an incident that a group claiming to be the cyber hacker or hacktivist group Anonymous has threatened Dahabshiil an international funds transfer company and the leading bank in Somalia, but the international funds transfer company based in the Middle East, says Anonymous was not responsible for the attack on its banking systems. According to the report, The group alleged it was the hacktivist group Anonymous, and threatened to destroy Dahabshiil within two months if the company did not stop what the group alleged as supporting terrorist organizations and terrorists in Somalia and across the world. A group claiming to be Anonymous published thousands of account numbers, names and details online. The hackers claimed it had installed " cyber bombs " within financial institutions around the world and threatened to trigger them if the Dahabshiil did not confess within two months. In the statement the Anonymous group released, the group alleged that it was investigatin

Cyber criminals and hacktivist groups are increasingly using the Telegram messaging app to coordinate their activities, leak data, and spread disinformation, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict enters its eighth day. A new analysis by Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point Research has  found  that "user volume grew a hundred folds daily on Telegram related groups, peaking at 200,000 per group." Prominent among the groups are anti-Russian cyber attack groups, including the Ukraine government-backed IT Army, which has urged its more 270,000 members to conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against Russian entities. Other hacktivist-oriented Telegram groups used to coordinate the attacks on Russian targets via DDoS, SMS or call-based attacks are Anna_ and Mark_, Check Point researchers noted. That said, there may be more to these attacks than meets the eye. "It seems that many of the hacktivist groups are more focused on building self-reputation and recei

An online "hacktivist" group that calls itself Anonymous has claimed responsibility for hacking into email accounts of Swedish government in response to the seizure of world renowned The Pirate Bay website and server by Swedish police last week. Apart from Sweden government officials, the Anonymous hacktivist group also claimed to have hacked into the government email accounts of Israel, India, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, and revealed their email addresses with passwords in plain-text. The Anonymous group also left a message at the end of the leak: " Warning: Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all!! Bye :* " The hack was announced by Anonymous group on their official Twitter account. The tweet also shared a link of Pastebin where leaked data has been dumped with the list of the emails. The tweet reads: " BREAKING: Emails from Swedish government were hacked in retaliation for the seizure of servers of The Pirate Bay https://pastebin.c

#OpFacebook : Facebook will be down on November 5 by Anonymous Hackers Attack Anonymous has vowed to "destroy" Facebook on Nov. 5. Or more accurately, somebody has set up a Twitter account and YouTube channel to announce a plan dubbed "Operation Facebook." In a YouTube video, the hacking group warns, " Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. " " If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy. " The group said in its message that "Operation Facebook" would be begin November 5. It claimed the social network, based in Palo Alto,Calif., provides information to "government agencies" so they can "spy on people." If Operation Facebook is real, it could mark a new phase for Anonymous, which in recent weeks has joined forces with the remnants of the more tightly knit hac

In the wake of horrific terror attacks in Paris, the online Hacktivist group Anonymous last week declared " total war " against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) that claimed responsibility for the attacks. While French, Russian, and US military are bombing ISIS from the sky, Anonymous members from all over the world are carrying out their very own cyber attack campaign, dubbed #OpParis , against the terrorist organization. Anonymous has claimed to have taken down 20,000 ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts in order to take revenge from ISIS for the deadly Paris attacks on November 13. Anonymous Took Down 20,000 ISIS-affiliated Twitter Accounts In a YouTube video posted on Wednesday, the group said: "More than 20,000 Twitter accounts belonging to ISIS were taken down by Anonymous." The group has provided a list of all the Twitter accounts that have been taken down. On Tuesday, the hacktivist group claimed to have successfully taken

After hacking and taking down social media accounts of ISIS members, the online Hacktivist group Anonymous is back again with its new plan to harass the Islamic State (IS) militant group that was behind the horrific terror attack in Paris. Anonymous declared total war against ISIS after the last month's Paris attacks and supposedly: Took down thousands of Twitter and social media accounts used by the ISIS terrorists Disrupted the terror group's primary communications platform Replaced one of ISIS' websites with a Viagra ad Now, the hacktivist group has declared December 11th to be " ISIS Trolling Day ," planning an organized trolling campaign against ISIS by assaulting their image through Photoshopped images, memes, videos and jokes related to the terrorist organisation. Also Read: ISIS Issues 5 Lame Tips for its Members to Avoid Getting Hacked Vanish ISIS Online Presence This campaign is also part of the group's ongoing effort

Hacker group Anonymous claims he took down North-side Independent School District's website (www.NISD.net) on Saturday to protest the district's use of tracking badges. On Sunday, Nov. 25, the same hacktivist released a statement via Pastebin giving the school district "1-3 days" to meet with parents and explain the student tracking program in detail. If the district fails to comply with the request, hacktivist promise to "simply shut down" the school district website once again. The hacker group also sent a Twitter message to the NISD account on Thursday, teasingly notifying them that their site was down. " They're tracking students! They have rights too. I want a statement about this, nobody agrees with that, even the parents! " Anonymous said. NISD said it wanted to expand the Student Locator Project to 112 Texas schools and around 100,000 students to curb truancy, apparently a major problem at the school district in question. It was reported that by improv

The 'Hacktivist' collective group Anonymous claimed to have leaked personal details of the controversial US presidential candidate Donald Trump , including his Mobile Phone Number and Social Security Number (SSN). Donald Trump SSN: 086-38-5955 DOB: 06/14/1946 Phone Number: 212-832-2000 Cell/Mobile Phone Number: (917) 756-8000 The hacktivist group has declared war against Trump under a campaign with the hashtag #OpWhiteRose . The White Rose Society was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi, Germany and was known for its anti-Nazi pamphlets and graffiti during World War II. Anonymous posted a YouTube video Thursday afternoon in which a man in a Guy Fawkes mask says: "Donald Trump has set his ambitions on the White House in order to promote an agenda of fascism and xenophobia as well as the religious persecution of Muslims through totalitarian policies. He has proposed targeting family members of suspected terrorists for assassination, even whi

The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman ' Patrick Leahy ' reintroduced a revamped version of the " Personal Data Privacy and Security Act " for tough criminal penalties for hackers, that he originally authored in 2005. During last Christmas Holidays, a massive data breach had occurred at the shopping giant  Target,  involving hack of 40 million credit & debit cards, used to pay for purchases at its 1500 stores nationwide in the U.S. Reason: "Target Data Breach? Seriously"?  In a statement, as published below, the Senator wrote: "The recent data breach at Target involving the debit and credit card data of as many as 40 million customers during the Christmas holidays is a reminder that developing a comprehensive national strategy to protect data privacy and cybersecurity remains one of the most challenging and important issues facing our Nation" It seems that the  TARGET Breach  was scheduled, as the best opportunity to ramp up the cyber secu

Members of the international hacker collective Anonymous have claimed they have identified the Ferguson , Missouri law enforcement officer involved in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown , an unarmed teenager killed on Saturday, which sparked days of protest and raised racial tensions. The hacktivist collective said Wednesday in a tweet that it was holding back the name of police officer until it confirmed the name of the police officer with a second source before releasing it publicly. " We have the name of the shooter, " the Anonymous group member  tweeted under the Twitter name Operation Ferguson . " We just can't verify. We need to either talk to witnesses or get a second leak source. " Michael Brown , 18-year-old, was shot multiple times by a local police officer on Saturday, which happened around 1:40 p.m. Brown's body was then left on the sidewalk for hours. He was killed following an alleged altercation with the Ferguson police. Since t

The online Hacktivist group Anonymous declared War against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) that claimed responsibility for the horrific terrorist attacks that rocked Paris last week. In response to the Anonymous' warning of launching their "biggest operation ever" against the terrorist group, ISIS militants called Anonymous – "IDIOTS" . It seems like Anonymous has taken ISIS response very seriously and the group has started carrying out their attacks against the terror organisation. Anonymous First 'Cyber Attack' on ISIS Soon after its war declaration, Anonymous claimed to have taken down more than 5,500 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts in #OpParis (Operation Paris). In the past, hackers and organizations associated with Anonymous brought down websites allegedly connected with ISIS and claimed to have taken down thousands of ISIS accounts, disrupting their social media recruitment efforts. Also Read: Would Encryption Backdoor S

The hacktivist group Anonymous has reportedly taken down the official website of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad against Israel's military incursion in Gaza, which has resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties. The government of Israel has yet to comment on the Mossad hack attack. The ' Hacktivists ' were able to take down Mossad's website in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack early morning, claims a statement on one of the Anonymous hacker's Twitter account. The attack on the website is supposed to be severe as it has been over 10 hours and the site is still down at the time of writing. OPERATION SAVE GAZA The Anonymous group has already targeted a number of other Israeli organizations as part of a campaign titled " Operation Save Gaza " in the mission to stop this " massacre ." Anonymous group has also claimed responsibility of taking down multiple Israeli government sites following the death of one of the organization's members. The member n

It's one thing for hackers to target websites and proudly announce it on social media platforms for all to see. It's, however, an entirely different thing to leave a digital trail that leads cybersecurity researchers right to their doorsteps. That's exactly what happened in the case of a hacktivist under the name of VandaTheGod, who has been attributed to a series of attacks on government websites since July 2019. In a report shared with The Hacker News, researchers from Check Point said they were able to map VandaTheGod's activity over the years, and eventually zero down the attacker's real identity to a Brazilian individual from the city of Uberlândia. The cybersecurity firm said it notified concerned law enforcement of its findings for further action, adding the social media activities on profiles associated with VandaTheGod came to a halt towards the end of 2019. A Long Social Media Trail VandaTheGod has a long history of going after government we