Anonymous Hackers Break Into US Government Computers

The FBI has warned that the activist group, Anonymous, are in a campaign to exploit and breach sensitive US government information since last year. They appear to have been successful in secretly accessed US government computers throughout multiple agencies and stolen sensitive information.

The hackers exploited a flaw in the software of Adobe Systems to launch a rash of electronic break-ins that began last December, then left “back doors” to return to many of the machines as recently as last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a memo.

It described the attacks as “a widespread problem that should be addressed”, adding that the breach affected the US Army, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, and perhaps many more agencies.

According to an internal e-mail from Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz’ chief of staff, Kevin Knobloch, the stolen data included personal information on at least 104,000 employees, contractors, family members and others associated with the Department of Energy, along with information on almost 20,000 bank accounts. System administrators were told by the FBI what to look for to determine if their systems are compromised.

Officials said the hacking was linked to the case of Lauri Love, a British resident indicted on October 28 for allegedly hacking into computers at the US Department of Energy, the army, the Department of Health and Human Services and elsewhere. Investigators believe the attacks began when Love and others took advantage of a security flaw in Adobe’s ColdFusion software, used to build websites.

Adobe spokeswoman, Heather Edell, said the majority of attacks involving the firm’s software had exploited programs that were not updated with the latest security software.

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