A hacker group claimed responsibility for releasing information from servers belonging to several federal agencies, defense contractors and other companies, according to a statement released on Tuesday.
In an attack dubbed #ProjectWhiteFox, hacker group Team GhostShell said the breach was its final in a series of attacks this year and was intended to “[draw] attention to the freedom of information on the net.”
According to ZDNet, the attack was done through an SQL injection method, which uses exploitative code to break into Web-based databases. Some of the victims include NASA, the Federal Reserve, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bigelow Aerospace.
The released data includes files from NASA’s servers, email addresses and account records, and defense related testing information. Team GhostShell claimed to have breached approximately 1.6 million accounts and records, but that number could not be independently verified.
The group is an offshoot of Internet hacker collective Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the past.
Kedar Pavgi
Kedar Pavgi joined Government Executive summer 2012 as an editorial fellow. He previously worked at Foreign Policy magazine, and has written for The Diplomat, The World Politics Review and the Foreign Policy Association. He received his bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary, where he studied economics and international relations.
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