Hackers sympathetic to the late computer prodigy Aaron Swartz
claim to have infiltrated the website of the US Justice
Department's Sentencing Commission, and said they planned to
release government data.
The Sentencing Commission site, www.ussc.gov , was shut down on
Saturday (local time).
Identifying themselves as Anonymous, a loosely organized
group of unknown provenance associated with a range of recent
online actions, the hackers voiced outrage over Swartz'
suicide on January 11.
In a video posted online, the hackers criticized the
government's prosecution of Swartz, who had been facing trial
on charges that he used the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology's computer networks to steal more than 4 million
articles from JSTOR, an online archive and journal
distribution service.
Swartz had faced a maximum sentence of 31 years in prison and
fines of up to $1 million.
The FBI is investigating the attack, according to Richard
McFeely, of the bureau's Criminal, Cyber, Response, and
Services Branch.
"We were aware as soon as it happened and are handling it as
a criminal investigation," McFeely said in an emailed
statement. "We are always concerned when someone illegally
accesses another person's or government agency's network."
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