Anonymous Hacks FEMA

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Anonymous claims to have hacked into servers at the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and it has divulged contact names and information it obtained from a database as proof. The group says the hack was in response to a exercise in which FEMA practiced responding to a cyberattack by a fictional terrorist group named “The Void.”

Examiner.com’s Michael Stone reported, “For the glory of Anonymous, hacktivists compromise[d] US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) servers, leaking contact information for hundreds of officials and others associated with the agency. On Wednesday, July 17, Anonymous hacktivists released a statement revealing names, addresses and other information pertaining to FEMA contractors and others connected to the agency. However, ‘logins, passwords, SSNs and other details that might genuinely endanger the United States’ was ‘purposefully redacted’ from the leak, according to the statement released by the Anonymous hacktivists.”

SCMagazine’s Adam Greenberg added, “Hacker collective Anonymous has taken credit for accessing and releasing a second list containing information for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contacts – less than 12 hours after an initial list was released publicly.”

InformationWeek’s Matthew J. Schwartz noted, “The delayed impetus for the dox was a ‘Cyber Capabilities Tabletop Exercise’ conducted in May 2012 by FEMA…. Anonymous said it objected to the fictional hacktvist group in the FEMA exercise being portrayed as anti-American, and for having attempted to transfer funds from a breached business into an overseas account. ‘We are not against any one country or corporation. However if you are an enemy of anonymity, if you oppose free speech, you are our foe, it is as simple as that,’ the group said.”

Motherboard’s Derek Meade commented, “More than anything, this attack seems aimed at reminding authorities and the internet that Anonymous is still serious.”