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Anonymous leaks 3500 Private Docs From Italian Police
On the wake of similar operations carried on by Hacktivists against Law Enforcement Agencies all over the World, the Italian Cell of the infamous collective Anonymous has decided to cross the line targeting the Italian Police with a clamorous Cyber Attack under the label of #Antisec movement.
On October, the 23rd, the Hactkivists have leaked more than 3500 private documents, claiming to own an additional huge amount of sensitive information such as lawful interception schemes, private files and e-mail accounts.
The Italian Police has indirectly confirmed the attack, downplaying its effects with a scant statement (in Italian) that (easily predictable) has raised a furious reaction by the Hacktivists. According to the above mentioned statement, no server was compromised, but the leaked data were just the consequence of several “illegitimate accesses” to private emails belonging to police officers (as to say that several compromised accounts are less severe than a hacked server).
Strictly speaking, this latest attack is not a surprise since in the past months, mainly after the infamous 50 days of Lulz of the LulzSec collective, Governments and Law Enforcement Agencies all over the world have become the preferred targets for Hacktivists under the Antisec shield. From a broader perspective this trend was apparently decreasing during 2012 because of several factors: the discovery of the double identity of Sabu (an hacktivist during the day and an FBI informant during the night), the arrest of W0rmer and ItsKahuna (two members of the CabinCr3w collective who left behind them a long trail of cyber-attacks against law enforcement agencies, and, last but not least, the arrest of the members of the Team Poison Collective.
Unfortunately This cyber-attack changes the rules and brings the things back in time to Summer 2011. It looks similar to LulzSec’s Operation Chinga La Migra, targeting Arizona Border Patrol, and to another (nearly contemporary) cyber attack that allowed LulzSecBrasil (??) to leak 8 Gb of data from the Brazilian Police.
Hopefully this cyber-attack will change the rules in Italy, it has dramatically demonstrated the real risk for public institutions and the need for a greater level of security. As a consequence it cannot be absolutely underestimated.
June 2012 Cyber Attacks Timeline (Part I)
Update 07/05/2012: June 2012 Cyber Attacks Timeline (Part II)
A (first half of the) month living dangerously…
June has come and strongly confirms that Summer is the preferred month for Cybercrookers: just look back at June 2011 and you will probably remember the days of Lulz of the infamous LulzSec Collective (which curiously seems to be reborn!).
June 2012 has shown a remarkable number of incidents and is proving to be a mensis horribilis (horrible month) for Social Networks and Online Services in general, due to the high profile breaches of LinkedIn, Last.Fm, eHarmony and the online game League of Legends.
On a geographic scale, looks like China is becoming another important source of Cyber incidents, having been targeted from #TeamGhostShell, who claim, inside their #ProjectDragonFly, to have obtained up to 800,000 accounts from different sources.
Hacktivism-led actions seem (apparently) to decline, whilst, on the Cyber Crime front, a new collective, UGNazi, is taking the scene, having confirmed, in the first part of June, the wake of cyber attacks, we have become familiar with for some time.
Another Infosec Summer promising to be very hot!
If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 (regularly updated), and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.
Also, feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timeline.
May 2012 Cyber Attacks Timeline (Part II)
As usual, here it is the second part of the Cyber Attacks Timeline for the month of May 2012: a month particularly rich of Cyber Events. As you will probably know, the Flame malware has monopolized the attention, deserving the most attention from the Information Security Professional.
Nevertheless the scene has offered many interesting events, among which it worths to mention the breach of 123,000 federal employees records, the breach affecting University of Nebraska, and, last but not least, the breach against WHCMS (which, as we will soon see, has proved to be fatal for its author).
The hacktivist front is still hot and preannounces another hot summer. On the other hand the authors of several remarkable cyber-criminal actions are probably going to leave the scene: the long trail of arrests made by Law Enforcement Agencies against hackers has continued in this month and has hence led to the arrest of Cosmo, the leader of the infamous group UGNazi, which claimed to be the author of the Cyber Attack against WHCMS.
In your opinion are the arrests against hackers really going to stop the growing number of Cyber Attacks (acting as a deterrent)?
If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 (regularly updated), and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.
After the jump you find all the references, and at this link the first part covering 1-15 May.
Antisec hacks another Defense Contractor
Update August 19: As part of #FFF IV Antisec has released full torrent for Vanguard Defense Industries Hack.
The Antisec Typhoon seems unstoppable and has apparently hacked another Defense Contractor. Continuing their campaign against law enforcement agencies and related organizations, driven by the infamous hash #FFFriday, this time they have targeted Richard Garcia, the Senior Vice President of Vanguard Defense Industries (VDI). During the Breach nearly 4,713 emails and thousands of documents were stolen.
According to TechHerald, AntiSec targeted VDI’s website due to their relationship with several law enforcement agencies from Texas and other parts of the U.S., as well as their relationship with the FBI, the DHS, and U.S. Marshals Service. Moreover, with this hack Antisec (in)directly targeted FBI since Richard Garcia is the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s field office in Los Angeles. To those supporting AntiSec, this alone is reason enough to target VDI and release Garcia’s corporate email to the public.
As usual the attack had been anticipated by an enigmatic and threatening tweet:
The emails were taken after AntiSec breached VDI’s website, based on the popular WordPress platform. According to Antisec source, VDI had two outdated plugins installed on their website, which had its development outsourced to a local marketing company in Texas. Although the person from AntiSec did not disclose the exact method used to access Garcia’s email, he stated that the hack was performed through the VDI website, and that his password was rather weak.
VDI is the responsible for ShadowHawk, an unmanned helicopter that can be tasked with aerial surveillance or equipped for military usage. At its base, the ShadowHawk comes with CCD TV optics, or an upgraded version includes CCD TV optics and FLIR optics. A third version, for military or law enforcement usage only, can be equipped with a single or multiple shot 37 mm or 40mm grenade launcher, as well as a 12g shotgun, and thermal cameras.
The is only the last leak to Defense Contractor, scroll down the list for attacks targeting Defense Contractors in this very troubled year:
| Date | Author | Description | Organization | Attack |
| Feb 5 |
  |
Anonymous hacks HBGary Federal Web Site, copies tens of thousands of documents, posts tens of thousands of emails online and usurps CEO Aaron Baar’s Twitter Account. |
 |
? |
| Apr 6 |
? |
An E-mail dated April 6, sent to 5,000 employees of U.S. Defense Contractor L-3 warns of an attack attempt made with compromised SecureIDs. It is not clear if the attack was successful (it was revelead half a month later). This is in absolute the first attack perpetrated with RSA Seeds. |
 |
Compromised SecureID |
| May 21 | ? |
This is the first known (and the only officially recognized so far) attack perpetrated with compromised SecureID seeds targeting a U.S. Defense Contractor. This Attack was detected before any sensitive information could be stolen. 100,000 accounts were locked as a precaution. |
 |
Compromised SecureID |
| May 26 | ? |
Third U.S. Defense Contractor attacked using Compromised RSA Seeds. Attacked detected before any sensitive data was stolen. |
 |
SQLi? |
| Jun 3 |
|
As part of the FFFriday campaign, LulzSec steals 180 usernames, real names, hashed and plain text passwords, are acquired and posted publicily |
 |
N/A |
| Jul 8 |
 |
Anonymous attacks IRC Federal and dumps the content of the attack on a torrent available at The Pirate Bay. The dumped content include databases, private emails, contracts, development schematics, and internal documents for various government institutions. |
 |
SQLi? |
| July 11 | |
Anonymous attacks consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and releases details of internal data including 90,000 military emails and passwords. Estimated cost of the breach is around $5,400,000.00. |
 |
SQLi? |
| Jul 11 | ? |
The Pentagon reveals to have suffered a breach of 24,000 documents in March, during a single intrusion believed to have been perpetrated by a Foreign Country. As a consequence of the Intrusion, a classified U.S. Military Weapon System will need to be redesigned after specs and plans were stolen during the breach. |
 |
? |
| Jul 28 |
|
Mantech International Corporation Anonymous hacks Mantech International Corporation, another FBI Contractor, as a consolidated tradition on Friday, and releases details of internal data and documsnts. |
 |
? |
| Jul 29 |
|
U.S. Law Enforcement Institutions As part of the Antisec operation and in retaliation for the raids and the arrest again alleged Anonymous and LulzSec members, Anonymous attacks 77 U.S. Law Enforcement Institutions, defacing and destroying their servers. |
 |
SQLi? |
| Aug 1 |
|
PCS ConsultantsAnother U.S. Government contractor, PCS Consultants gets hacked by Anonymous & Antisec. Hackers extract website Database and leak it on the internet via Twitter on Pastebin (as usual!). Leaked Data include Admin’s and 110 users emails, plus passwords in encrypted hashes. |  |
? |
| Aug 16 |
|
Antisec targets Richard Garcia, the Senior Vice President of Vanguard Defense Industries (VDI). During the Breach nearly 4,713 emails and thousands of documents are stolen. As consolidated tradtion, the torrent is released on Friday, August the 19th. |
 |
Vulnerability in WordPress Hosting Platform |
Related articles
- Vanguard Defense Industries compromised by AntiSec (thetechherald.com)
It’s A Cruel Summer
The Cruel Summer the title of this post refers to, is not the famous ’83 pop hit by Bananarama, but just a brief summary of what is happening on Information Security, most of all for those companies and istitutions falling among the target of Anonymous.
Yesterday the latest: as part of the #Antisec operation and in retaliation for the raids and the arrest again alleged Anonymous and LulzSec members (provided they are the right ones), Anonymous attacked 77 U.S. Law Enforcement Institutions, defacing and destroying their servers.
In the attack, as usual announced by Twitter, massive amounts of confidential and personal information were stolen (10 Gb according to Anonymous), including emails, passwords, classified documents, internal files, informant lists, and more.
Moreover 7,000 law enforcement officials’ private data were posted, including: social security numbers; email accounts and passwords; phone numbers and home addresses.
Here is the list of the compromised domains:
20jdpa.com, adamscosheriff.org, admin.mostwantedwebsites.net,
alabamasheriffs.com, arkansassheriffsassociation.com,
bakercountysheriffoffice.org, barrycountysheriff.com, baxtercountysheriff.com,
baxtercountysherifffoundation.org, boonecountyar.com, boonesheriff.com,
cameronso.org, capecountysheriff.org, cherokeecountyalsheriff.com,
cityofgassville.org, cityofwynne.com, cleburnecountysheriff.com,
coahomacountysheriff.com, crosscountyar.org, crosscountysheriff.org,
drewcountysheriff.com, faoret.com, floydcountysheriff.org, fultoncountyso.org,
georgecountymssheriff.com, grantcountyar.com, grantcountysheriff-collector.com,
hodgemansheriff.us, hotspringcountysheriff.com, howardcountysheriffar.com,
izardcountyar.org, izardcountysheriff.org, izardhometownhealth.com,
jacksonsheriff.org, jeffersoncountykssheriff.com, jeffersoncountyms.gov,
jocomosheriff.org, johnsoncosheriff.com, jonesso.com, kansassheriffs.org,
kempercountysheriff.com, knoxcountysheriffil.com, lawrencecosheriff.com,
lcsdmo.com, marioncountysheriffar.com, marionsoal.com, mcminncountysheriff.com,
meriwethercountysheriff.org, monroecountysheriffar.com, mosheriffs.com,
mostwantedgovernmentwebsites.com, mostwantedwebsites.net,
newtoncountysheriff.org, perrycountysheriffar.org, plymouthcountysheriff.com,
poalac.org, polkcountymosheriff.org, prairiecountysheriff.org,
prattcountysheriff.com, prentisscountymssheriff.com, randolphcountysheriff.org,
rcpi-ca.org, scsosheriff.org, sebastiancountysheriff.com, sgcso.com,
sharpcountysheriff.com, sheriffcomanche.com, stfranciscountyar.org,
stfranciscountysheriff.org, stonecountymosheriff.com, stonecountysheriff.com,
talladegasheriff.org, tatecountysheriff.com, tishomingocountysheriff.com,
tunicamssheriff.com, vbcso.com, woodsonsheriff.com
It has been an hard Week-End, started with the hack of ManTech, and just ended (maybe) with this further resounding action…
Luckily this dirty July is nearly over… from the meteorological point of view, this summer is not very hot, at least in Italy, the same can not be said for Information Security for which I do not remember a month so troubled. Will it end here, or will the peak (of meterological and information security temperatures) be reached in August?
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08/13/2011 - My Post on Android Malware Mentioned on Engadget.
04/14/2011 - The Article Smart Grid: L'ultima Frontiera del Cybercrime published on ICT Security Magazine May 2011.
03/14/2011 - Security Summit 2011: Paolo Passeri guest at Round Table "Mobile Security: Rischi, Tecnologie, Mercato"
02/14/2011 - The Article Gears of Cyberwar published on ICT Security Magazine January 2011.
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