A new faction of hacktivist collective Anonymous appears to be setting its crosshairs not on NATO or government contractors but on a much fatter (or is it fatuous?) target: celebrities.
The splinter group dubbed “Hollywood Leaks” has begun to make waves in the entertainment industry over the last week, leaking celebrities’ phone numbers, unreleased movie scripts and nude photos.According to a report on CSO’s Australian site, the offshoot group has been distributing its leaks via the Twitter account HWLeaks. Anonymous’ motto, “We do not forgive, we do not forget, expect us,” rounds out the profile.
When pressed in an interview for an explanation of the group’s intents by the media/gossip blog Gawker, one member of Hollywood Leaks claimed “We’re simply here to facilitate the free flow of information from a place which was previously over looked, Hollywood.”
Among the first targets was an actor in Tom Cruise’s upcoming musical Rock of Ages had his e-mail cracked which lead to the script eventually being posted to bittorrent site Pirate’s Bay in late August, well in advance of its 2012 release.
Early last week, rapper Kreayshawn found her nude pictures spread across the Internet after they were tweeted from her hijacked Twitter account. Actress Jenny Garth and musicians Miley Cyrus and DJ Drama have seen their phone numbers leaked over the past few weeks while actor Gerard Butler and rappers Lloyd Banks and Waka Flocka Flame were also targeted and had their e-mail addresses released to the public.
The celebrities’ sensitive information was posted to Pastebin, a file sharing site that has seen increased usage by hackers to show off their exploits as of late. The same site was used to distribute critical information belonging to IRC Federal and the Federal Bureau of Investigation following breaches earlier this year.
