Hackers with the collective Anonymous attack the home page of Panda Security's PandaLabs in apparent retaliation for the arrests of five LulzSec members.
A day after the arrests of several alleged members of the
hacker group LulzSec, others claiming to be members of the hacker collective
Anonymous took over the home page of Panda Security's PandaLabs Website in
retaliation.
They also took aim at Hector
Xavier Monsegur, a New York City resident and alleged leader of the LulzSec
group, whose cooperation with authorities helped lead to the arrests March 6. Monsegur reportedly had used the online name "Sabu" in his
work with LulzSec.
"Yeah yeah, we know, Sabu snitched on
us," a message on the Hacked PandaLabs page reportedly said. "As
usually happens, FBI menaced him to take his sons away. We understand, but we
were your family, too."
The hackers also promised to continue their
activities, and challenged the FBI and other authorities to try to find them. "To
FBI and others ... come at us bros we are waiting for you," the message
read.
As of the morning of March 7, attempts to
call up the PandaLabs Website are met with a message saying that Google was
unable to reach the site.
Anonymous is seen as a loosely formed
collective of hackers that has defaced and shut down a variety of Websites,
including those associated with various government agencies, the music industry
and companies that cut ties with the controversial whistle-blower WikiLeaks
operation. Among its most high-profile attacks came in December 2011, when it
hacked into the Website of Stratfor Global Intelligence, a U.S.-based security
company whose email system was accessed and several million emails stolen.
Some of those emails have begun showing up
on the WikiLeaks site. Soon after the attack by Anonymous was discovered, Stratfor CEO George
Friedman tried to calm customers by saying there was nothing damaging or
significant in the stolen emails. However, the company said in a statement in
February, after the first of the emails was posted on WikiLeaks, that the
release of the emails was "deplorable" and that officials would have
no further comment.
"Having had our property stolen, we will not be
victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them," Stratfor said
in the statement.
Anonymous also had a loose association with LulzSec, which
during its 50-day spree last year targeted some U.S. and British government
sites, as well as companies, such as Sony. The group ended its attacks last
year, though reports have some members of LulzSec joining with Anonymous.
Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have been working
to track down the hackers, leading to the arrests of several members from both
Anonymous and LulzSec. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security also has warned
about potential attacks coming this year.
The sweeping arrests of five highly placed members of LulzSec
March 6two of the suspects were from England, two more from Ireland and the
fifth from Chicagowere among the most high profile. According to reports, the
break came last year, when Monseguror Sabua 28-year-old unemployed father of
two who lives in New York City, was identified and arrested on a slew of charges.
He pleaded guilty in August 2011 and began cooperating with authorities in
hopes of getting a reduced prison sentence.
After the arrests, Luis Corrons, technical director at
PandaLabs, praised the arrests in a blog titled "Where is the Lulz Now."
The Anonymous hackers accused Panda Security of helping
investigators track down members of Anonymous and LulzSec, saying Panda's
efforts helped lead to the arrest of 25 Anonymous members.
In a statement to journalists, Panda Security said the
Anonymous hackers got into a Web server that was hosted outside of Panda's
internal network, and that the server was primarily used for marketing
campaigns and hosting blogs.
"Neither the main Website, www.pandasecurity.com, nor
www.cloudantivirus.com were affected in the attack," the company said in
the statement. "The attack did not breach Panda Security's internal
network, and neither source code, update servers nor customer data was
accessed."
The only information the hackers were able to access related
to marketing campaigns, "such as landing pages and some obsolete
credentials, including supposed credentials for employees that have not been
working at Panda for over five years," the company said.
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