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Anonymous posts banking industry data dump in ongoing Aaron Swartz protest

Anonymous posts banking industry data dump in ongoing Aaron Swartz protest

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Since the suicide of activist Aaron Swartz in early January, hackers operating under the Anonymous banner have come out in full force, organizing a blockade against Westboro Baptist Church picketing and hijacking MIT's website with a memorial message. Now, they've released what appear to be documents on 4,000 members of the banking industry. The file was originally posted on the hacked site of the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center — though the page is now gone, it's still possible to find a cache.

The file contains public and private phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and password hashes (not plaintext passwords) for a huge list of people, possibly from Federal Reserve computers. Many of the people listed are presidents or other upper management personnel from small local banks, something that can be confirmed with web searches. The passwords and usernames are less verifiable, but Anonymous has said before that it's assembled a larger "warhead" of information from hacked government agencies.

The Operation Last Resort Twitter account has called this release a "distraction," suggesting more releases could be coming if Anonymous isn't satisfied with efforts to reform both the American justice system and the laws used to prosecute Swartz before his death. Today, both hacktivists and other supporters of Swartz are awaiting a statement from Attorney General Eric Holder, who has been asked by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) to respond to a series of questions about Swartz's case by February 4th.