Anonymous plans Christmas offensive with 'Lulzxmas'

Hacktivist group Anonymous has announced its intention to steal from banks and "bring happiness and gratitude to families around the globe" with a new campaign called 'DestructiveSec'.

In a statement it said "this Christmas we wish to give back to the people who had everything taken" and "this Christmas we are stealing from the banks who stole from you and giving you back what was rightfully yours in the first place". It gave no hint to its target, saying: “Any Country. Any Age. Anything. We're giving Santa Claus a break this year.”

Another statement issued last week on Anon News said that "a new Anonymous action has surfaced, dedicated to granting wishes to people who are less fortunate than most over this coming holiday season"; it named the action ‘Lulzxmas'.

The operation is apparently being run by two "very well-known hackers" called ‘Charrie' and ‘LulzFunny'. They were quoted as saying: “We're both well known for hacking but have never done this sort of thing and neither have any hackers before!”

According to the statement, Lulzxmas received hundreds of requests in its first 36 hours of operation. It said: “The action is taking place because of two reasons: because we can and we want to help people; followed by the banks stole peoples money then lost it as well as taking their property and leaving millions with a sad Christmas. So we're taking from the banks and giving back to the average Joe.”

In an interview posted on Anon News "with the Spirit of LulzX­mas, a ded­i­cated mem­ber of Destruc­tiveSec", a spokesperson for the movement said that "hatred, love and gen­eral humanity" made them want to undertake this operation and so far it had spent more than $US76,000 ($A76,818) "of the banks' lovely money" and was "aim­ing for a mil­lion by xmas".

Asked if there were any tar­gets, know­ing that the banks will reimburse customers, the spokesperson said: “We hack mas­sive hosts to get the VPSs (virtual private server) and domains etc. then we hit banks' accounts ter­mi­nals to lit­er­ally steal from the rich and put in vir­tual e-credit cards.”

Asked if they could estimate how much money they had stockpiled in virtual credit cards, they put the figure at more than a million dollars in total. Apple products including iPods, iPads and iPhones were most requested, along with clothes from a website that it accessed via an SQL injection vulnerability, whereby it "defaced part of the site and black­mailed the owner". It later revealed that the victim was a top UK clothes shop that made £14m ($A21m) profit last year.

They said other requests have been made for donations to charities and to Occupy movements.

This article originally appeared at scmagazineuk.com