Anonymous Hackers Leak Zimbabwe Government Data

28 June 2011 | 11:42 AM ET | Matt Liebowitz, SecurityNewsDaily Staff Writer

CREDIT: Anonymous

The Anonymous hacking group has launched attacks on government websites in Zimbabwe to protest the controversial president of that southern African country, Robert Mugabe.

A Twitter post from AnonymousIRC late Monday night (June 28) read: "Currently uploading about everything about Zimbabwe Government on Internet there is to know. Who actually likes Robert Mugabe? #AntiSec"

Anonymous uploaded the file, called Zimbabwe .gov SQL Dump, to the Hong Kong-based file-sharing site Megaupload.com.

This marks the second time Anonymous has launched online campaigns against the Zimbabwean government. The first attack came in early January, when, to protest Zimbabwe blocking its citizens from accessing WikiLeaks, Anonymous knocked www.tunisia.gov.tn offline as part of "Operation Payback."

Before Anonymous hit Zimbabwe this time, the group leaked passwords and user names from government servers in Brazil, Anguilla and Australia. In each Twitter announcement, Anonymous used the "Anti-Sec" hashtag, referencing "Operation Anti-Security," the anti-government hacking campaign spearheaded June 19 by LulzSec .

With these leaks, Anonymous resumed its place as the most prominent hacking group now that LulzSec has announced the end of its operations.

[LulzSec Hackers Call it Quits]

But as many security experts have speculated, the two groups may have not been so separate after all.

Just prior to releasing the Zimbabwe cache, Anonymous wrote: "Yes, my fellows. We may be not quite as funny, but we can assure you: We sail in the same spirit. LulzSec = Anonymous. Who did NOT now [sic]?"

Anonymous said it is also planning to release data pertaining to major U.S. companies.

Would you like to subscribe to our weekly newsletters?