Tuesday 19 July 2011

Anonymous releases Rebekah Brooks’ email address and password

Online activism group Anonymous has released a host of email addresses and passwords it claims belong to senior News International executives past and present, including the company’s embattled former chief Rebekah Brooks. The hackers said that they also have a collection of emails stolen from News International servers, which they say they are “sitting on”.

The hackers said that “anyone who can find [Ms Brooks'] webmail account” could use the details to access her emails. In an attack apparently linked to the phone hacking scandal currently engulfing News International, the hackers also defaced The Sun’s website, redirecting visitors to a fake site, running spoof stories that News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch had been found dead.

The group released details it said belong to The Sun’s Editorial Manager for online content, Danny Rogers; former News of the World Managing Editor Bill Akass and another it claimed was a Sun staff-member, but whose identity could not be verified as of Monday night. It also released mobile phone numbers of three people it said were News International staff.

And in a further twist, one of the hackers responsible for the attack warned that media outlets, until now protected from attack, would become targets. Speaking exclusively to The Independent, Sabu – rumoured to have been the mastermind behind the LulzSec project – said: “We thoroughly scrutinize the media for bullshit reporting, lax investigative efforts. Mind you, you think The Sun is the only one?

“New York Times, Forbes, LA Times, we’re going in.” However, it is unclear for what reason, specifically, those outlets have been targeted.

In another attack, members of an Anonymous operation named OpBritain took down The Times’ website, as well as a site it described as a “fan site” for Rupert Murdoch. Hackers working within OpBritian, an operation carried out by Anonymous, hit Rupertmurdoch.com and TheTimes.co.uk with denial of service attacks.

On Monday night, a News International spokesman said: “We are aware and our technical teams are working on it.”

 

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