Cyber activists associated with Anonymous have kicked off a digital counter-offensive in response to an ongoing crackdown against OccupyWallStreet (OWS) protestors.
On Sunday, hacktivists targeted the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) by downing their website and doxing PERF executive director Sherwin B. “Chuck” Wexler.
The attack was launched after various media outlets identified the organization as helping to coordinate Occupy evictions nationwide.
Although PERF maintains extremely close ties with law enforcement agencies across the country (including the DHS), the organization issued an official statement of denial.
“Over the last few days, the Police Executive Research Forum has been the subject of several false articles and blog postings alleging that we have been coordinating police crackdowns on Occupy protests. This is not true,” claimed PERF.
“[We] conducted two conference calls for the sole purpose of allowing police chiefs to compare notes about their experiences with ‘Occupy’ protests. The last conference call was held on November 4 – more than two weeks ago.”
Meanwhile, Anonymous members operating under the AntiSec banner pwned and owned the Special Agent Supervisor of the CA Department of Justice in charge of computer crime investigations by leaking over 38,000 private emails containing detailed computer forensics techniques, investigation protocols and “highly embarrassing” personal information.
“Possibly the most interesting content in [Fred Baclagan’s] emails are the IACIS.com internal email list archives (2005-2011) which detail the methods and tactics cybercrime units use to gather electronic evidence, conduct investigations and make arrests,” AntiSec reps wrote in a communiqué.
“The information in these emails will prove essential to those who want to protect themselves from the techniques and procedures cyber crime investigators use to build cases. If you have ever been busted for computer crimes, you should check to see if your case is being discussed here. There are discussions about using EnCase forensic software, attempts to crack TrueCrypt encrypted drives, sniffing wireless traffic in mobile surveillance vehicles [and] how to best prepare search warrants and subpoenas.”
According to AntiSec, the digital raid was carried out in retaliation for recent arrests of alleged Anonymous members and continued interference with OWS protests.
“We often hear these ‘professionals’ preach about ‘full-disclosure,’ but we are sure these people are angrily sending out DMCA takedown notices and serving subpoenas as we speak. They call us criminals, script kiddies, and terrorists, but their entire livelihood depends on us, trying desperately to study our techniques and failing miserably at preventing future attacks.
“See, we’re cut from an entirely different kind of cloth. Corporate security professionals like Thomas Ryan and Aaron Barr think they’re doing something noble by ‘leaking’ the public email discussion lists of Occupy Wall Street and profiling the ‘leaders’ of Anonymous. Wannabe player haters drop shitty dox and leak partial chat logs about other hackers, doing free work for law enforcement. You want to keep mass arresting and brutalizing the 99%? We’ll have to keep owning your boxes and torrenting your mail spools, plastering your personal information all over the Internets.”
