Anonymous releases 14GB of data on the spying habits of Bank of America and more

Anonymous has released 14GB of data it acquired about Bank of America, Thomson Reuters, ClearForest, Bloomberg, and TEKSystems, an intelligence firm. It did this via a press release on the website Par-AnoIA, including a link to the hacked data and a rundown of the relevant details for those who don't have the time to look at 14 gigs of info. The data concerns the spying habits of Bank of America and other corporations, which are said to include a log of data on hundreds of thousands of employees and executives at various corporations around the world.

According to Anonymous, it considered this information to be newsworthy for several reasons, including the insecure way it is stored and the rather disconcerting fact that it contains information about "hundred [sic] of thousands" of both employees and executives of many corporations globally, with that information including data about the individuals' salaries. The data on individuals was named "Bloomberg" and tagged as "reuterscompanycontent," and comprised a total of 4.8 gigabytes.

The point about the data being stored insecurely is underscored not just by the fact that the hackers accessed it, but also by how they did it – without hacking. The amassed data is reportedly stored in Tel Aviv, where ClearForest is based, on an open server that is misconfigured, meaning that just about anyone can get it with a little bit of elbow grease.

Says the hackers, the information gathered is of a poorly researched nature, meaning that portions of it may not even be correct. The information being gathered is coming from IRC channels, social media, forums, and other such Internet locations, and has a focus on targeting activist movements and Anonymous. The spying utilizes an apparent keyword list with in excess of 10,000 entries used to find content on Twitter, IRC, and other Internet locations. Most of the entries are Wikipedia references, with 1,125 believed to be actual, relevant keywords.

Says Anonymous, it has released the data it found to raise awareness and make a point.

[via Paranoia]