02/07/2013

Renowned hacking group Anonymous said it is planning to attack Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) on Feb. 14.

According to Anonymous' Twitter account, the hacktivist group is planning on shutting down Goldman Sachs' Facebook and Twitter page on Feb. 14 to express their hatred of the financial behemoth. The account tweeted out the request to their 869,000-plus Twitter followers on Thursday.

Anonymous reportedly released several e-flyers in several different languages today from its various Twitter accounts -- all e-flyers say the attack will involve three steps: First, they are encouraging supporters to report the Goldman Sachs Facebook and Twitter accounts as spam. Then, the flyer provides a URL where users can fill out an abuse form on Twitter (you can do the same on Facebook), encouraging users to fill out the form and say Goldman Sachs has been abusing Twitter. The final step said to make "friendly" phone calls to the Goldman Sachs' offices in London, Paris, or Dublin, depending on which flyer you saw.

The operation, dubbed "Operation Goldman Sachs," is being run through an official Tumblr page. While "#OpGm" might be the most recent case of Anonymous hacking into Goldman Sachs, it isn't the only instance that Anonymous has targeted the financial firm. Back in 2011, Anonymous published the private personal information of a number of Goldman employees, including CEO Lloyd Blankenfein. CNN wrote at the time that a Twitter user named CabinCr3w tweeted out that he had "doxxed," or released, personal info of Goldman's CEO, including Blankenfein's age, education, recent addresses, and legal cases he had been involved in. At the time, Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the leak.

Reports also surfaced recently that Anonymous had hacked into the US Federal Reserve. In an interview with ABC News, ex-Anonymous member Greg Housh said the hack was a result of the lack of prosecution of "big bankers that caused a lot of the problems we've had over the last few years." Housh also said to expect more Anonymous attacks on governments in the future.

The hack into the Federal Reserve resulted in the leaking of personal information of over 4,000 bankers. ABC News says the Federal Reserve hack may have been a part of "Operation Last Resort," which was started earlier this year when Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz commited suicide over charges of wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and recklessly damaging a protected computer. Swartz faced as much as 35 years in prison if he was found guilty.

According to Insider Media Group, the upcoming operation is due to a recent interview given by Huw Pill, a chief economist at Goldman. While talking to the Huffington Post, Pill suggested that France lower wages by approximately one-third in an effort to increase competition in the labor force. The Operation Goldman Sachs Tumblr page is written in French, and might be an indicator that French hackers may be planning an attack on Goldman due to those comments.

Advocates are turning to Twitter to express their support for Operation Goldman Sachs, under the hashtag #OpGm.

Via IBTimes