LONDON (The Blaze/AP) — A group of computer hackers claims to have breached NATO security and accessed hordes of restricted material.
The group called Anonymous says it would be “irresponsible” to publish most of the material it stole from NATO but that it is sitting on about 1 gigabyte of data.
Anonymous posted a PDF file Thursday on its Twitter page showing what appeared to be a document headed “NATO Restricted:”
Anonymous is a loosely organized group of hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks. It has claimed responsibility for attacks against corporate and government websites worldwide.
The group also claims credit for disrupting the websites of Visa and MasterCard in December when the credit card companies stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
The reported hack comes on the heels of cyber security arrests made Tuesday. Fourteen people were taken into custody for allegedly mounting a cyberattack on the website of PayPal in retaliation for its suspending the accounts of WikiLeaks as part of the hacker group LulzSec.
Separately, FBI agents executed more than 35 search warrants around the country in an ongoing investigation into coordinated cyberattacks against major companies and organizations.
As part of the effort, there were two arrests in the United States unrelated to the attack on the PayPal payment service. Overseas, one person was arrested by Scotland Yard in Britain, and there were four arrests by the Dutch National Police Agency, all for alleged cybercrimes.
Could it be that this is in part retaliation? Maybe. The group also sent out a joint tweet with LulzSec giving a statement to the FBI:
The statement is bold. It says the FBI will not be able to stop the groups, and lays out complaints both have against the government:
It seems Anonymous reads The Blaze, too: