‘Anonymous Coward’ posts information to prove point

by Steve Ragan - May 13 2008, 11:54

While calling the person a “hacker” might be stretching the truth, someone who went by the name Anonymous Coward, posted information on six million Chileans that was obtained from government computer systems. The “Coward” went on to explain that the posting was done to make a point.

The Anonymous Coward (perfect name really if you think about it), went data mining on various Chilean government sites and collected information on six million people, almost forty percent of the population by some estimates. That would have proved a point by itself, but this moron went and posted the information on two well-known sites, the tech-based "FayerWayer" and community centered "ElAntro."

"It’s a serious matter and we're investigating," Police Cibercrime Brigade chief Jaime Jara told the El Mercurio daily. Jara said the data leak did not include financial records and was less serious than first thought. On Monday a prosecutor was appointed to figure out how the aforementioned moron gained access to so much information. The obvious reason, according to the message left by Anonymous Coward was, “to demonstrate how poorly protected the data in Chile is, and how nobody works to protect it.”

The AP is reporting, “Deputy Telecommunications Minister Pablo Bello said the government is drafting legislation to improve protection of personal data.” In addition they AP reports, “The army said the hacker disclosed information pertaining to 8,919 youths out of 146,593 who have registered for military service.”

Most of the information was public knowledge, so it is not as dangerous as originally thought. However, there were better ways to point out obvious flaws, rather than post this information to the public.

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