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Hacktivists Crack United Nations, Publish User Data

TeamPoison might have broken into UN Development Program website

Dec 01, 2011 | 01:01 AM | 

By Tim Wilson
Dark Reading
A hacktivist group called TeamPoison (TeaMP0isoN) has leaked more than 100 usernames, email addresses, and passwords belonging to the United Nations, claiming that the UN is guilty of corruption.

The user data appears to belong to individuals at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UNICEF, World Health Organisation (WHO), and other groups, according to news reports.

The gang noted, when publishing its stash on PasteBin, that some of the user IDs appeared to have a blank password.

Reports indicate that the hackers were able to take advantage of a vulnerability on the United Nations Development Program website to extract the IDs, email address, and passwords of users. The UN told reporters that the information obtained was from an old server and contains no current or valuable information. The accounts obtained are no longer active, the UN says.

The UN is not saying exactly how the attack occurred. "The question now is how?," the hacktivist group said. "We will let the so called 'security experts' over at the UN figure that out. Have a nice day."

TeamPoison recently announced that it is joining forces with Anonymous on a new initiative dubbed "Operation Robin Hood," targeting banks and financial institutions.

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