Anonymous admits leaking personal info on 16,000 Finns
Anonymous has taken responsibility for the personal information of some 16,000 Finns ending up on a file sharing site on Saturday, and has additionally made public the membership application database of the Kansallinen Vastarinta (the online magazine of the Finnish militant Neo-Nazi organization Suomen Vastarintaliike) website.
The initially published records include personal information such as names, social security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and sometimes even educational institutions which the victims attended.
Most of the information is accurate, and it is feared that it could be used by malicious individuals to perform identity theft.
According to the Helsingin Sanomat, the published information seems stolen from several sources: the Work Efficiency Institute, Student Alliance Osku, WinNova L?¤nsirannikon koulutus Ltd, and Aducate – Centre for Training and Development at the University of Eastern Finland.
Before Anonymous took responsibility for the leak, it was unknown how the published data was collected. But the hacker organization says that it has “externally supported the hacking of several Finnish websites’ databases containing personal and sensitive info of thousands of citizens residing in Finland.”
The reason behind the hacks? “We care about digital security and We decided to see whether Finnish authorities, companies and institutions offer their users a proper security and safely treat and store their info,” they wrote. “Sadly, We found out they never did. Getting into websites and databases was as easy as cutting butter with a knife: all We have used were elementary SQL injections, something everyone can do by simply searching for an SQL injection manual on the web.”
The hacking of the Kansallinen Vastarinta website has also been explained as a direct attack against “dumbass Neo-nazis”. “We have no tolerance for any group based on racial, sexual and religion discrimination as well as for all the people belonging to them and sharing their ideologies, which is the reason why We decided to carry out last Monday’s attack,” they wrote. “That said, We demand SVK to cease its social and net activities and dissolve immediately: should it not happen, We will continue to carry out attacks to its website in the form We will find more appropriate for our intentions.”
It is believed that the Anonymous hackers behind the attacks are Finnish, and the country’s National Bureau of Investigation has mounted an investigation into the matter.