Anonymous posts over 4000 U.S. bank executive credentials
Summary: Anonymous appears to have published login and private information from over 4000 American bank executive credentials its Operation Last Resort, demanding US computer crime law reform.
By Violet Blue for Zero Day |
Anonymous appears to have published login and private information from over 4,000 American bank executive accounts in the name of its new Operation Last Resort campaign, demanding U.S. computer crime law reform.
A spreadsheet has been published on a .gov website allegedly containing login information and credentials, IP addresses, and contact information of American bank executives.
If true, it could be that Anonymous has released banker information that could be connected to Federal Reserve computers, including contact information and cell phone numbers for U.S. bank Presidents, Vice Presidents, COO’s Branch Managers, VP’s and more.
The website used in this attack belongs to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC). The page extension URL is titled, “oops-we-did-it-again.”
The spreadsheet document contains usernames, names of individuals and their titles at banks across the U.S., hashed passwords (not passwords in plain text). It was placed on a .gov website and on Pastebin, and publicized via various Anonymous accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
A Reddit member called the numbers and commented,
OK, I called a few of them. What must be so problematic for the Federal Reserve is not the information so much as this file was stolen from their computers at all.
The ramifications of that kind of loss of control is severe.
Banks listed on the document claim credentials from management at community banks, community credit unions, and more, across the United States.
A visit to the bank websites on the document shows that these are current employees at each of the banks.
Anonymous stated in its first Operation Last Resort defacement last friday (ussc.gov) it had infiltrated multiple federal websites over a period of time. The hacktivist entity dropped enough technical details to make it clear that its tracks were covered and that Anonymous still had access to .gov websites.
Significance of Monday, February 4?
While today in the United States it is the day of a major American sporting event (the Superbowl), this Sunday night’s timing of Anon’s document release coincides with another event more important to the new Anonymous campaign Operation Last Resort – a campaign anchored on the Swartz tragedy.
After the Anonymous OpLastResort hacks last weekend, last Monday a House panel issued a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder (.pdf link) with seven specific questions, and demanding answers regarding the Swartz prosecution.
Tomorrow, Monday February 4, is the deadline for Attorney General Eric Holder to answer specific questions regarding the Aaron Swartz prosecution.
Anonymous may be focusing on that deadline, as well.
Previously on the defaced ussc.gov website Anonymous cited the recent suicide of hacktivist Aaron Swartz as a “line that has been crossed.”
The statement suggested retaliation for Swartz’s tragic suicide, which many – including the family – believe was a result of overzealous prosecution by the Department of Justice and what the family deemed a “bullying” use of outdated computer crime laws.
With the letter to Holder, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requests a briefing with the Justice Department. CNET writes,
“Many questions have been raised about the appropriate level of punishment sought by prosecutors for Mr. Swartz’s alleged offenses, and how the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, cited in 11 of 13 counts against Mr. Swartz, should apply under similar circumstances,” [Reps. Issa and Cummings] say in the letter, which requests a briefing no later than February 4.
The letter is another voice from the Federal side of the discussion, joining a chorus led by Democratic congresswoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren who has authored a bill called “Aaron’s Law” that aims to change the 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (with which Swartz was being prosecuted).
Last friday February 1, Lofgren submitted a draft of the bill to be reviewed on Reddit. Ars Technica reported that after its online critique, a revised version of the bill was published today, with more far-reaching reforms.
Last weekend Anonymous commandeered the US Sentencing website to launch Operation Last Resort “warheads” (encrypted files suggested by Anonymous to be sensitive US government documents).
The defacement demanded reform on US computer crime laws, citing the January 11 tragic suicide of young hacker and digital rights activist Aaron Swartz.
- See also: Anonymous hacks US Sentencing Commission, distributes files
- Tragedy cited as cause behind the attacks: Hacker, Activist Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide
Anonymous spent last weekend playing cat-and-mouse with the Department of Justice after taking over the ussc.gov website (still decimated and now “under construction” over a week later).
After the US government regained control of the .gov website used in the hacks and defacements, Anonymous regained control of two .gov sites and turned the sites into a mocking video game of Asteroids.
Public interest in Sunday’s Asteroids game created a crowdsourced DDoS, downing the websites for days.
It is possible that banks and user information on tonight’s new “oops we did it again” document may be connected to accounts at The Fed (The Federal Reserve Bank).
The Fed has a collection of services called Fedline, which operates at highly critical junctures across the U.S. banking system.
For instance, one of the services offered by Fedline is money and funding transfers via the U.S. Federal Reserve.
It enables financial institutions to transfer funds between member participants. These participants are estimated to be around more than 9,000 financial entities (such as banks).
Fedline is the primary U.S. network for high value, time-critical and international payments.
In 2007 the estimated average daily value of funds transferred via Fedline products was 2.7 trillion (an estimated 537,000 payments daily, the average was over $5 million per transaction).
At this point, the information on the document is unverified and exactly what banking systems the information may affect is not known. ZDNet will update this article with new information as it becomes known.
The Operation Last Resort video, posted Friday on the U.S. Sentencing Commission website now has 1,183,000 views.
It is interesting to note that this second “official” #OpLastResort salvo does not cite AntiSec, as seen in the Asteroids game.
Anonymous appears intent to influence federal action – one way or another.
Eddie says:
I guess Bernanke’s email was encrypted? I’d like to read a few of those, Anonymous.
No don’t send them to me. Send them to Julian Assange. I’m in enough trouble.
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4th February 2013 at 3:38 pm
Dorkus Maximus says:
HaHaHaHaHa!!!
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4th February 2013 at 4:02 pm
Eddie says:
So why is Violet Blue reporting this news? I thought she was a kinky Bay Area sexpert geek girl. She’s kinda cute in that Gen X Annie Sprinkles wannabe way.
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4th February 2013 at 5:14 pm
any mouse says:
Here’s the thread on Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/17v9zy/anonymous_posts_over_4000_us_bank_executive/
Upvotes people!
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4th February 2013 at 5:22 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
So much for the integrity of the fed.gov information systems, heh. Gee, I can’t wait until all my private healthcare information is available in such an apparently easily hackable form….***cue eyeball rolling***
Although, given the CRIMES and THEFT these banksters have committed over the last decade, this hacking could not happen to a better group of people.
Although, mebbe this Anonymous group is just a ginormous reverse PsyOps.
Mebbe they are really fed.gov folks, out to throw the banksters to the wolves, make the average person fear the integrity/safety of the net/electronic banking system, perhaps leading to “justification” for the fed.gov to clamp down on the internet – all in the name of “public safety”, blah blah blah.
Manufactured crisis = fed.gov “solution” = erosion of liberty/freedom/prosperity.
Just sayin’.
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4th February 2013 at 6:02 pm
Kill Bill says:
A secret internal review has concluded that President Barack Obama can lawfully engage in pre-emptive cyber attacks in the event that the U.S. faces an imminent threat, according to The New York Times.
The legal guidance was key to rules the administration hopes to adopt in the coming weeks to govern cyber warfare operations. The Times added that those rules will classified similarly to the policies governing the nation’s drone warfare program.
The president is only known to have launched one cyberwar operation, against Iran. It was codenamed “Olympic Games,” and focused on developing computer viruses that caused havoc within the country’s nuclear program. That’s where the Stuxnet virus came from according to the NY TIMES.
~~~~~
Gazing into my crystal ball I see another cyberwar in the near future.
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4th February 2013 at 8:32 pm
Makati1 says:
Let the games begin… ^_^
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4th February 2013 at 10:12 pm
prtrb'd says:
Like Hope says…
the guns play ain’t even cooled off yet and here they are starting in on internet controls. are they running scared or is this just the game plan with a take down right around the corner?
might be time to get your ducks in a row…
guns, grub, gear and growing ground
or
prior planning prevents piss-poor performance
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4th February 2013 at 11:24 pm
Anonymous Strikes Back – Peter Lucas | says:
[...] Anonymous Hacks the Fed [...]
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4th February 2013 at 5:13 am