Hackers have dumped login details from 1.6 million accounts online after a hacking spree that hit some of the biggest organisations in the world.
Hacktivist group Team GhostShell claimed responsibility for the attack. Organisations such as NASA, the European Space Agency and the FBI as well as other governmental bodies and contractors were hit. Organisations in the education, nanotechnology and banking were also hit.
The login details, posted on Pastebin, included user names, passwords and email addresses, as well as the full contents of various databases the hacktivists gained access to. The details were uploaded to around 140 different files and were said to have been hacked from 40 websites.
Team GhostShell said the attacks were part of its ProjectWhiteFox, which aims to promote "hacktivism worldwide and draw attention to the freedom of information on the net." The group said this dump was designed to round off a year of attacks.
The group’s statement added that it was protesting against the ITU’s (International Telecommunication Union) current negotiations about the future management of the internet.
"The initiative for preventing the internet from turning into a governmental police-state has already begun by getting different websites/companies to ‘deface’ their own site with a message about it and why they’re against it," the statement said.
"GhostShell is encouraging this phenomenon as well. If you’re liking this idea, feel free to do it too, regardless of who you are. Spreading the message and informing people about it is what matters."
The statement added that the group had contacted a number of the organisations it hit to inform them as well as pointing out around 150 insecure servers it had discovered at organisations such as the Pentagon and the Federal Reserve.
The group also mocked authorities that may be trying to track them down.
"Since it’s our final stand this year, we’ve made the call to invite you guys to our event as well. How? Well, how about by starting with the fact that anti-terror agencies have been keeping an eye on us from the beginning," the release said.
"GlobalTerrorAlert you and the rest thought were invisible just because your own websites were set to ‘hidden’? Silly kids, if you’re on the net, then you can be sure that someone is watching you, no matter how hard you try to hide," it said.
