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WASHINGTON -; The Pentagon said Tuesday it had requested an investigation into a hacker group's reported cyber threat against a military base that is being used to hold a US soldier suspected of giving documents to WikiLeaks.
Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan said the probe was requested after news that the hacker group called Anonymous was seeking to disrupt online activities at the Quantico, Virginia, base where Private Bradley Manning is incarcerated.
According to the Financial Times, members of Anonymous; an amorphous group of worldwide hackers -- have been discussing plans on public file-sharing sites to target the Quantico brig over Manning's treatment.
Meanwhile, a member of Anonymous, using his real name, Barrett Brown, admitted, "My feeling is I'm going down anyway so; I may as well do it with gusto."
Barrett Brown, 29, calls himself senior strategy officer for the group. He recently was interviewed by MSNBC and explained why his group is looking to attack critical U.S. institutions. He states, "It's a guerrilla cyberwar — that’s what I call it. It's sort of an unconventional, asymmetrical act of warfare that we’ve involved in. And we didn’t necessarily start it. I mean, this fire has been burning."...
Mr. Brown's latest effort is to personally attack and "harass" military personnel, law enforcement officials, and staff at the Quantico, Virginia military base where Bradley Manning is imprisoned. Anonymous members try to hack into the peoples' personal accounts and attempt to post personal information and embarrassing details on internet message boards and other outlets.
The attacks are known as "doxing" to the group. They include trying to post details about the individuals' families such as the names of their children and their home addresses.
