Anonymous hackers launched another cyberattack, this time against FBI contractor ManTech International, and claimed to steal almost 400 megabytes of data from the managed cybersecurity provider.
Anonymous said the attack was part of its AntiSec campaign -- a collaborative effort between Anonymous and spin-off hacker group LulzSec.
Included in the stolen data were documents belonging to NATO, the U.S. Army and the U.S Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Justice, as well as other personnel information, the group said.
As customary with its hacks, Anonymous posted a 390 BitTorrent file to the Pirate Bay file-sharing Web site. The file was coupled with a note that said the hack was intended to push back against the FBI following the arrest of 14 Anonymous hackers suspected of participating in a massive December cyber attack against PayPal.
“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 corporations,” the hackers said in a note posted to the Pirate Bay.
“Dear Government and Law Enforcement, we are repeating this message as we have the suspicion you still do not take us seriously,” the Anonymous letter read. “We are not scared anymore and your threats to arrest us are meaningless. We will continue to demonstrate how you fail at about every aspect of cybersecurity while burning hundreds of millions of dollars that you do not even have.”
ManTech confirmed the hack with a statement on its homepage. “All organizations attract cyberthreats in our highly networked world. Our practice is generally not to comment on reports involving security related matters. However, given current publicity, we wish to assure our customers, employees, shareholders and business partners that ManTech takes seriously recent reports of a cyberthreat, and we responsibly and actively address all sources of information about threats to our information and assets and those of our customers.”
Last August, the FBI commissioned Fairfax, Va.-based ManTech to the tune of almost $100 million to provide a myriad of cybersecurity functions, including 24-hour intrusion-detection monitoring, incident identification and response, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing and threat analysis, among other things.
"[W]e pwned [sic] ManTech utterly and throughly; and we did not need hundreds of millions for it," Anonymous said in its note. "In fact, we did not require any funds at all, we did it with Lulz.'
Anonymous hackers claimed that they conducted the hack to shed light on wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars in Washington.
"But don't you worry," the group added, "the U.S. is a rich country and can afford to waste money, right?"
ManTech International is one in a long line of government agencies and contractors that have been targeted in high profile attacks perpetrated by members of Anonymous or LulzSec over the last several months.
Other government contractors and facilities in the crosshairs of Anonymous include the 3 FBI affiliate InfraGard , Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory , as well as the CIA , the U.S. Senate and the Arizona Department of Public Safety , as well as other law enforcement agencies.
