Computer hackers from the Anonymous Operations “hacktivist” collective, attacked several German neo-Nazi websites around New Year’s Day. While the group’s attacks forced several right-wing Internet portals to shut down, the hackers captured customer data from other neo-Nazi sites.
On the newly created site Nazi-Leaks.net the hackers published personal data they took from right-wing websites of mail order, newspapers, and networks in an effort to expose neo-Nazi sympathizer and activists, reported German public broadcaster ARD. The published names include high-ranking politicians of the Bavarian wing of the ruling Christian Democrats who subscribe to a right-wing weekly newspaper.
In a statement, Anonymous said, “We have no tolerance for any group based on racial, sexual and religion discrimination as well as for all the people belonging to them and sharing their ideologies, which is the reason why we decided to carry out last Monday’s attack,” according to The Hacker News website.
Europe’s biggest hacker organization, Chaos Computer Club, voiced disapproval over the compromises calling them a violation of the right of data privacy for every citizen, whatever his or her standpoint, Suddeutsche Zeitung reported.
Similarly, a reader of the German weekly Die Zeit on Monday criticized the hacker’s tactic to create a modern-day pillory as “medieval, backward, and premature.”
However, the target may have been chosen in reaction to the perceived failings of the authorities to act to prevent neo-Nazi crimes.
Last November, the German public was shocked when a series of murders committed by an underground neo-Nazi group came to light. The group had been operating for eight years, robbing banks and killing immigrants, but their existence was only discovered by accident, drawing huge public criticism against German police for not knowing about the group.
The worst of the group’s attacks was a 2004 bombing in Cologne hitting a street with mostly Turkish and Kurdish residents.
