As the Ravens were on their way to a tight Super Bowl victory, Anonymous posted a tweet that read: "Now we have your attention America: Anonymous's Superbowl Commercial 4k banker dox via the FED", accompanied with a link to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Centre (ACJIC) that once hosted the information list. The list was swiftly removed (although is available to be viewed elsewhere....) and the ACJIC refused to comment.
The file itself contained phone numbers, names, log in details (albeit with encrypted passwords) and IP addresses of the 4,000 employees who ranged from cashiers to bank presidents. Phone calls made to several of the numbers and research into the banks seemed to confirm that the information is accurate and up-to-date.
Anonymous’ OpLastResort operation demands a reform in computer crime prosecution, something that was largely kick-started by the suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz. Although the government website hacking is nothing new – in fact, there have been several attacks over the past few weeks – if the group have indeed managed to hack into the Federal Reserve and take sensitive information from directly inside then it's serious business – "above and beyond [Anonymous's] skill set" says Jeffrey Carr, CEO of Taia Global.
Major security breach aside, the victims are now being warned that if their username and password combinations were reused on other sites, then they could now be facing identify theft, scams and other unexpected impacts on their financial lives. Those at risk are being advised to change all password and username combinations and to boost security across their home network and computers.
One way that potential threats to security can be avoid is through the use of a VPN service. A VPN service can help to minimize the risk of unauthorized access and information theft.
Top 5 VPN service Provider:
| Name of the Provider | |
| Hide My Ass | |
| Strong VPN | |
| Switch VPN | |
| Pure VPN | |
| IPVanish VPN |
