PayPal calls for AntiSec members to be outed
By David Howells
14/07/2011
Following hacks to its Twitter account, PayPal has called for members of the hacking group AntiSec to be discovered and unmasked.
AntiSec (anti-Security) is a group thought to have formed from the ashes of Anonymous and LulzSec.
It recently released around 90,000 email user names and passwords from US Army contractors to alert internet users of just how fragile the security system in use was.
Previously, PayPal has been the subject of a hack of its own. Hackers managed to break into its Twitter account and change the PayPal website URL to 'paypalsucks.com'. No organised hacking group took responsibility for the attack, however, suggesting it may have been done by a lone individual - possibly a disgruntled customer.
The PayPal attack was an extremely high-profile one, as millions around the world use the escrow service to handle their money transfers. Furthermore, it once again promoted the need for businesses big and small to invest in IT systems management software.
Now, PayPal's chief security officer Michael Barrett has called on his peers to locate and oust members of these 'hacktivist' groups.
"I believe it's crucial for all companies to do what they can to try to identify these individuals," Barrett told scmagazine.com.au.
"They delude themselves that they are anonymous on the internet. They are not. They can be found, and for the continued safety of the internet, we must identify them and have legitimate law enforcement processes [to] appropriately punish them."
Adding, Barrett told serpentsembrace.wordpress.com: "While many of them claim to be defending the internet they love, in practice it would seem that they are only hastening its demise."
