The ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests spilled into the digital realm, as a group linked to the Anonymous hacking collective spilled information about Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, along with e-mail addresses for much of the investment bank’s senior leadership.
The ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests spilled into the digital realm, as a group linked to the Anonymous hacking collective spilled information about Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, along with e-mail addresses for much of the investment bank’s senior leadership.
The information was posted to the file sharing Web site Pastebin on Thursday by a group calling itself Cabincr3w, which claims to be affiliated with Anonymous and the larger Antisec movement. The information on Blankfein, a polarizing figure who some see as the embodiment of Wall Street excess. Blankfein has testified that he doesn’t believe Goldman Sachs was obligated to inform its clients that it was betting against financial instruments it was selling them, and claimed in a 2009 interview that banking was doing “God’s work” – a statement he later apologized for.
The information posted online is innocuous. It includes Blankfein’s current and past address, place of employment and lawsuits that name the Goldman Sachs CEO as a plaintiff or defendant. In general, it is the type of data that could be obtained through a public records search.
However, the “doxing” or public exposure is part of a broader, online component of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York and other cities. Cabincr3w has taken a lead with other hacktivists in outing a New York City police officer involved in an incident in which three apparently peaceful protesters were pepper sprayed. After the incident was caught on film protesters called online for help in identifying the officer. Cabincr3w and others obliged, naming the officer, Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, and posting his home address online and other information, including a civil rights lawsuit naming him and dating from 2007.
Other police officers involved in corralling and arresting protesters have also had photos posted online and calls for them them to be identified.
