Anonymous has hacked and leaked email accounts and passwords belonging to over 2,000 members of Congress and their staffers.
A tweet issued on July 17 by OpLastResort , a twitter account associated with the international hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, announced the congressional hack and leak. The tweet included a link to an online document with over 2,000 email addresses and passwords.
According to the documen t, the Anonymous hacktivists showed “restraint” by removing “some of the passwords” and shuffling “the order of remaining ones.”
Gizmodo reports the vast majority of the leaked email addresses and passwords come from the House of Representatives, though there are some from the U.S. Attorney General's office, the Senate and even New York's comptroller.
The tweet announcing the hack included the hashtags #FISA, referencing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and #PRISM, the name of a secret government surveillance program.
Earlier this week Anonymous compromised the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) servers, leaking contact information for hundreds of officials and others associated with the agency. On July 17, Anonymous hacktivists released a statement revealing names, addresses and other information pertaining to FEMA contractors and others connected to the agency. However, “logins, passwords, SSNs and other details that might genuinely endanger the United States” was “purposefully redacted” from the leak, according to the statement released by the Anonymous hacktivists.
In the statement , Anonymous “dedicated” the FEMA hack “to our fallen comrades, allies and those who fight for the same causes as us. For Jeremy Hammond, for Weev, for Edward Snowden, for everyone who has risked and continues to risk their freedom for their belief in a world free from constant, invasive surveillance.” The statement also asks for the release of Barrett Brown.
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