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Anonymous hacks government site, threatens to expose secrets in response to Aaron Swartz's death

Anonymous hacks government site, threatens to expose secrets in response to Aaron Swartz's death

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anonymous last resort
anonymous last resort

Hacktivist group Anonymous took over the United States Sentencing Service's website earlier today to announce its intention to expose government secrets in response to the US Department of Justice's treatment of Aaron Swartz. The group says Swartz's indictment was a "twisted and distorted perversion of justice," and claims to have hacked government organizations in retaliation. Anonymous hasn't revealed the nature of the "sensitive" information it's uncovered, but says that "everyone has secrets, and some things are not meant to be public." It's gathered all the information into a "warhead:" a file called U S - D O J - L E A - 2013 . A E E 256.

"Two weeks ago today, a line was crossed. Two weeks ago today, Aaron Swartz was killed. Killed because he faced an impossible choice. Killed because he was forced into playing a game he could not win -- a twisted and distorted perversion of justice -- a game where the only winning move was not to play."

The organization says it "hopes this warhead will never be detonated," explaining that it understands that many government employees are innocent parties that "believe in those principles that [the justice system] has lost, corrupted, or abandoned."

Anonymous wants changes to outdated laws, or "there will be chaos."

In a long and meandering notice — currently available through Google's cache of USSC.Gov — Anonymous demands changes to "outdated," "broad," and "poorly-envisioned" legislation; the end of mandatory minimum sentencing; and a return to "proportionality of punishment" that takes into account actual harm caused. Should their demands not be met, the hackers will apparently give a single media outlet "redacted partial contents of the file" as part of what it's calling "Operation Last Resort." It ends its diatribe claiming "this time there will be change, or there will be chaos."