The State Department Database Has Allegedly Been Hacked and Sensitive Info. Released

Anonymous members often wear Guy Fawkes masks. The loosely connected group claims to have hacked into the State Department and an investment firm. (Photo: Wikimedia)

Anonymous has claimed it hacked a U.S. State Department Database, releasing the names, email addresses, phone numbers and more of its staffers.

According to Read Write, the hacking collective posted the information of hundreds of State Department contacts on the ZeroBin website as part of its Operation Last Resort, which is retaliation for the lawsuit against Aaron Swartz who committed suicide last month.

Web Pro News has Anonymous' statement regarding its latest claimed hack:

Our reasons for this attack are very simple. You’ve imprisoned or either censored our people. We will not tolerate things as such. You don’t see us going around censoring everything that is inappropriate or we do not like. Basically, you tried to put an end to us and you got owned, there’s nothing more you can say or do. You took away Topiary, Avunit, Neuron, Pwnsauce, lolspoon, Aaron Swartz shall we go on? Heck you think this makes us weak? We are only growing stronger because of the fact that you are forcing us to revolt. When the lions roar you will hear them. And when it’s feeding time you’ll be our dinner.

Aaron Swartz this is for you, this is for Operation Last Resort.

The State Department has not confirmed nor denied a breach of its systems yet. But it's not like the State Department would be out of Anonymous' reach. The hacktivists recently obtained information from a database held by the Federal Reserve, which the Federal Reserve confirmed. In the past they have also successfully hacked into an FBI conference call, into the Syrian Defense Ministry's website, and the U.S. FTC’s consumer protection business center, consumer.gov, and the National Consumer Protection Week websites to name a few.

Web Pro News went on to report that in addition to the State Department, Anonymous also announced hacking the investment firm George K. Baum and Company. The company's website appears back to normal now, but it was defaced earlier this week with a Pastebin account that held customer information. Web Pro News stated that the attack on this website was due to ties with the intelligence firm Stratfor.

all user accounts of that Investment Bank? here for anyone who missed it!! sebsauvage.net/paste/?3ba9364…#OpLastResort

— OpLastResort (@OpLastResort) February 18, 2013

What do Gov employees do at an investment bank anyways? gkbaum.com/defaced.htm @publicanonnews #Oplastresort

— OpLastResort (@OpLastResort) February 18, 2013

Many tech sites are tying Anonymous recent hacks of government and company sites to President Barack Obama's executive order regarding cyberattacks. They are wondering just how the government could or would be able to crack down on the actions by the hacking collective.

Update: Spokesperson from the State Department said to TheBlaze in an email that it is "aware of claims that the group Anonymous 'hacked' a Department website associated with state.gov, but cannot confirm the veracity of these claims at this time." The department is currently investigating the matter.