Categories: Breaking NewsCyber CrimeHacking

Anonymous Hacks US Census Bureau Against TPP/TTIP

Anonymous hackers announced to have compromised the US Census Bureau against TTIP/TPP and leaked data online as proof of the data breach.

Anonymous hackers announced to have compromised the US Census Bureau against TTIP/TPP. The members of the popular collective are the same that hacked World Trade Center (WTC) according to the colleagues at the Hackread.com. The experts at Hackread which analyzed the data confirmed their authenticity.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a multinational trade agreement between the countries around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. Anonymous is protesting against the TTP because it considers the agreement a menace because it threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws among the countries of the Pacific Rim. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a trade and investment deal currently being negotiated by the EU and the US.

The hackers breached the official website of U.S. Census Bureau on 20th July 2015 and accessed data belonging to the Bureau’s officials. The hackers leaked the data online to protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

“GETTING INTO THE BUREAU’S SITE WAS A PIECE OF CAKE, IT WAS JUST A SIMPLE SQL INJECTION CAN YOU BELIEVE AND THIS WILL HURT A LOT OF PEOPLE?” said the hackers at Hackread.

The hackers have leaked the data into four separate archives:

http://justpaste.it/mh2x
http://justpaste.it/mh50
http://justpaste.it/mh5g
http://justpaste.it/mh6m

The first part includes the database of the U.S. Census Bureau’s website, including password hashes of belonging its users. The second part contains more than 3000 records, including usernames, full names, IDs, emails, phone numbers, and names of the agencies belonging to U.S. official from the military, IRS, Census Bureau, Department of Home Security, US Department of Education, National Nuclear Security Administration and other high-profile U.S. government institutions along with their addresses. The availability of emails could allow attackers to run further attacks such as spear phishing campaigns.

The third part of the leaked data includes thousands of U.S. governments emails associated with users’ credentials in clear-text.

The fourth part includes more than 6700+ emails, names, phone numbers, and departments of the US government officials along with their addresses.

“The plain-text passwords on such a high-profile website show how the U.S. is vulnerable to simple as well as sophisticated cyber attacks, as the plain-text passwords can further be used to access other government based platforms.” states the HackRead portal.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – US Census Bureau, Anonymous)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.