Hackers from AntiSec have claimed responsibility for a strike against another contractor with ties to the United States government. ManTech International Corporation came into the sights of the group, who managed to bypass their security and steal around 400MB of internal data. According to CNET, this data mostly concerns NATO, the Department of Homeland Security, some branches of the United States military, and the State and Justice departments. The information was posted to The Pirate Bay, and then announced via Twitter.
Rumors began to appear on Twitter that the data contained a Trojan horse, though another post made on Twitter soon clarified that the information did not contain any malicious files. ManTech’s representatives did not return a call seeking comments earlier in the day, when hackers had contacted the company and threatened the release of data. When the data was released, the group’s office in Fairfax, Virginia, was closed. The anonymous hackers are tied with AntiSec, who also are built up of hackers from LulzSec and other groups, also boasted of having released emails obtained from the Department of Homeland Security. It transpired that these emails were obtained on the web legitimately, rather than actually stolen from the DHS.
Two statements made by the group responsible are as follows:
"Today is Friday and we will be following the tradition of humiliating our friends from the FBI once again. This time we hit one of their biggest contractors for cyber security: ManTech International Corporation
"What ManTech has to do with the FBI? Well, quite simple: In Summer 2010 the FBI had the glorious idea to outsource their cybersecurity to ManTech. Value of the contract: 100 Million US-Dollar."
Despite the risk associated with their hacking, it seems that there are those who are prepared to continue. LulzSec"s "spokesman", known by the alias of Topiary, was arrested in England, though it seems that the hackers are not concerned with the potential for this to happen them as well.