Cops Set Up Extortion Sting On Symantec's Source Code Thieves

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "Hackers linked with Anonymous leaked another 1.26 gigabytes of Symantec's data Monday night, what they say is the source code company's PCAnywhere program. More interestingly, also posted a long private email conversation that seems to show a Symantec exec offering the hackers $50,000 to not leak the company's data and to publicly state they had lied about obtaining it. Symantec has responded by revealing that in fact, the $50,000 offer had been a ruse, and the 'Symantec exec' was actually a law enforcement agent trying to trace the hackers. It adds that all the information the hackers have released, including a 2006 version of Norton Internet Security, is outdated and poses no threat to the company or its customers. Symantec says the Anonymous hackers began attempting to extort money from the company in mid-January, and it responded by contacting law enforcement, though it won't comment on the results of the fake payoff sting while the investigation is still ongoing."

Comments

Re:1.26 Gig?

[Opportunist]

Let's see... grinds system to a halt, hard if not impossible to remove short of a reinstall, gives you no information what it actually does, contacts its maker and downloads code after sending god knows what...

Yep. The pattern matches.

Re:Cops set up FAILED exortion sting

[iamhassi]

Why is Symantec acting like they fooled Anonymous? In the email it says "Say hi to FBI agents" and Symantec is like "We are not in contact with the FBI."

Symantec fail.

Title should be: Anonymous outsmarts Police, Symantec sting

Re:Cops set up FAILED exortion sting

[g0bshiTe]

I was more interested in the fact that Symantec is trying to make it look like Anonymous is into extortion, which from all reports has never been their goal.