Undeterred by a rash of arrests, the hackers at Anonymous are boasting “about one gigabyte” of data from NATO. But they’re not going to publish most of it, as it’d be “irresponsible”. The rest? “Interesting data,” they say.
Attacking NATO seems like an odd choice. Anonymous has very public and very strident sympathies with the Libyan revolution, which would have been crushed long ago had it not been for NATO intervention. So why pick on a group they should ostensibly be gushing over?
Well, for one, it’s a governmental alliance, and Anonymous’ AntiSec ethos harbours categorical hatred toward government per se. Secondly, they appear miffed by some of NATO’s strategic choices – including outsourcing Balkan war efforts, as described in a PDF they’ve leaked this morning. So what will they drop out of that gigabyte cache? Wait and see. It’ll be interesting to see how loyalty and a purported sense of responsibility clash with their goal of leaking everything, all the time.
Update: I spoke with an inner AntiSec member, who confirms that the data heist is a direct response to NATO’s threats last month.