FBI: Anonymous Hackers Stole Info on 100,000 Federal Employees, Contractors

Hackers associated with Anonymous launched a year-long campaign to break into multiple government agency networks and steal the personal information of over 100,000 employees, contractors and family members, according to a recently distributed memo obtained by Reuters. 

The FBI memo, Reuters reports, was meant to call for aministrators to clean up the mess left behind by Lauri Love, a 28-year-old British man arrested at the end of October for stealing employee personal information from the government. Love was accused of working with a team of hackers to leave malware in networks for the U.S. Army, NASA and the Missile Command Agency, among others, that gave them "back door" access to networks and allowed them to come and go as they pleased.

Reuters reported that It said the breach also affected the Energy Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and perhaps many more agencies.

Love and his co-conspirators, who the FBI believe were loosely-involved with the Anonymous hacking collective Anonymous, would re-enter the networks and steal the personal information of employees, contractors and family members. Despite Love's indictment, the FBI believes his co-workers have continued their campaign, "a widespread problem that should be addressed," the memo says.

Read more at the Atlantic Wire

(Image via Pedro Rufo / Shutterstock.com)