Update (below): Anonymous releases 90,000 military emails and passwords

A Twitter account purported to be run by a hacker who helped found the infamous LulzSec group claimed Monday that “Anonymous” would release “literally explosive” information this week, ostensibly taken from intelligence contractors.

While it was impossible to verify if the account was legitimate, it had been previously referenced on official Anonymous channels and bore the tag of “Sabu,” who is believed to be one of the group’s leaders and among the founders of LulzSec.

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In another release, Sabu warned the intelligence community that “your contractors have failed you,” adding, “Tomorrow is the beginning.”

The account vowed that this week’s releases would be the biggest info-dumps for Anonymous in the last four years.

Reporters James Ball and Charles Arthur, with The Guardian, suggested that the hacker collective may be looking to expose information held by British intelligence contractors as it relates to an extradition appeal filed by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

They also suggested the release could alternatively be related to the phone hacking scandals surrounding News International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch’s global media conglomerate News Corp.

In another possible outcome, the warning could be purely disinformation intended to stir up confusion and media fanfare.

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Much like nearly ever story about Anonymous, the truth about these shadowy figures and their forthcoming operations remains hidden under layers of encryption, leaving even the media to wait and see what the hackers will produce, if anything.

Update: Anonymous releases 90,000 military emails and passwords

Hackers claiming to be part of Anonymous said this afternoon that they had released some 90,000 military email addresses and passwords stolen from the servers of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.

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“We infiltrated a server on their network that basically had no security measures in place,” they wrote. “We were able to run our own application, which turned out to be a shell and began plundering some booty. Most shiny is probably a list of roughly 90,000 military emails and password hashes (md5, non-salted of course!). We also added the complete sqldump, compressed ~50mb, for a good measure.”

The files, under the title “Military Meltdown Monday,” were released on bittorrent sharing website The Pirate Bay and became quickly available across the web.

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Anonymous said Booz Allen was targeted for their involvement in numerous electronic surveillance programs, and quipping that it took just four hours to accomplish the hack.

The group added that they “found maps and keys for various other treasure chests buried on the islands of government agencies, federal contractors and shady whitehat companies.

“This material surely will keep our blackhat friends busy for a while.”

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A Booz Allen representative did not respond to a request for comment.

Image credit: Flickr commons.