Tech News

Anonymous launches new hacking attack a day after bust

Mar 7, 2012, 17:32 GMT

San Francisco - The hacking group Anonymous launched a web attack Wednesday on the internet security firm PandaLabs, a day after charges were filed against five alleged leaders of the group.

'We are Antisec we'll fight till the end,' said the message posted on PandaLabs' hacked home page. 'To FBI and other shits come at us bros we are waiting for you,' said the message, referring to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The message taunted former Anonymous leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, who was known as Sabu, for informing on the group, and included a seven-minute video that recounted the group's exploits and paid homage to Wikileaks.

'Sabu snitched on us. As usually happens FBI menaced him to take his sons away,' said the message. 'We understand, but we were your family too.'

The message said that Anonymous had targeted the security firm in retaliation for Panda's alleged role in identifying the arrested hackers.

Panda Security confirmed the intrusion but said that only one public website had been compromised and that no data on its employees or clients had been stolen.

'The attack did not breach Panda Security's internal network and neither source code, update servers nor customer data was accessed,' the company said. 'The only information accessed was 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 attack followed the indictments Tuesday in Manhattan against five alleged hackers who were involved in high-profile attacks last year on Sony Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting, and the security firm Stratfor, among other victims.

Besides Monsegur, the indictment also detailed charges against Ryan Ackroyd, aka 'Kayla' and Jake Davis, aka 'Topiary,' both from Britain and Darren Martyn, aka 'pwnsauce' who were each charged with two counts of computer hacking conspiracy and face 10 years in jail.

Donncha O'Cearrbhail, aka 'palladium,' of Ireland faces the same charge as well and a wire communication offence which carries a maximum five-year term. Jeremy Hammond, aka 'Anarchaos,' of Chicago faces charges of computer hacking, computer hacking conspiracy and another conspiracy charge, each of which carris a maximum ten-year sentence.