Latest news
Anonymous continues with its Operation Last Resort, and its latest targets were the websites of the U.S. Department of State (state.gov) and of investment firm George K. Baum and Company (gkbaum.com).From the former they exfiltrated - and published - databases containing a treasure trove of personal information about their employees (names, birth dates, phone numbers, email addresses, home and work addresses, and so on).
"Our reasons for this attack are very simple. You've imprisoned or either censored our people. […] Basically, you tried to put an end to us and you got owned, there's nothing more you can say or do. You took away Topiary, Avunit, Neuron, Pwnsauce, lolspoon, Aaron Swartz shall we go on?" they wrote in a not accompanying the leak, reiterating that Operation Last Resort has been launched in memory of recently tragically deceased Internet activist Aaron Swartz.
George K. Baum and Company's website was defaced, and a link to a ZeroBin post containing details of their customers' accounts (names, email addresses, passwords and more) in clear text was published on it.
According to a post on the @OpLastResort Twitter account, the investment firm was hit because its Vice President Joshua Magden was a client of Stratfor (Strategic Forecasting Inc.), a US-based think-tank that Anonymous hacked in December 2011.
Operation Last Resort started with the DDoS attack on MIT's official website and the defacement of one of its subdomains, on which Anonymous called for a reform of "computer crime laws, and the overzealous prosecutors who use them", "reform of copyright and intellectual property law", "greater recognition of the oppression and injustices heaped daily by certain persons and institutions of authority upon anyone who dares to stand up and be counted for their beliefs, and for greater solidarity and mutual aid in response", and a "renewed and unwavering commitment to a free and unfettered internet, spared from censorship with equality of access and franchise for all."

Follow @zeljkazorz


Spotlight

Is it time to professionalize information security?
Posted on 23 May 2013. | The issue of whether or not information security professionals should be licensed to practice has already been the topic of many a passionate debate.

Review: Logging and Log Management
Posted on 22 May 2013. | Every security practitioner should be aware of the overwhelming advantages of logging and perusing logs for discovering system intrusions. But logging and log management comes with its own set of difficulties.

Experts highlight top data breach vulnerabilities
Posted on 22 May 2013. | Hidden vulnerabilities lie in everyday activities that can expose personal information and lead to data breach, including buying gas with a credit card or wearing a pacemaker.

A closer look at Mega cloud storage
Posted on 21 May 2013. | Once a novelty, nowadays many cloud storage services are fighting for their piece of the market in the virtual world. Mega offers 50GB of free space with great pricing on Pro accounts.

The CSO perspective on healthcare security and compliance
Posted on 20 May 2013. | Randall Gamby is the CSO of the Medicaid Information Service Center of New York. In this interview he discusses healthcare security and compliance challenges and offers a variety of tips.
By subscribing to our early morning news update, you will receive a daily digest of the latest security news published on Help Net Security.
With over 500 issues so far, reading our newsletter every Monday morning will keep you up-to-date with security risks out there.





