Everyone loves a good unveiling, unless of course the veil is actually a hood and there’s a KKK member on the OMG side of the reveal.
A group of Israeli hackers compromised the website of an organization associated with the KKK and leaked the personal information of its members. The group has been identified with the anti-fascist movement, or Antifa.
Hayalim Almonim, a self-styled anti-fascist collective, hacked the website of the Patriotic Brigade of the KKK on January 30, replacing white supremacist imagery with personal information belonging to members of the group.
Included in the leaked information was the name, address, birthdate, and email address of Kevin James Smith, the organization’s leader. The hacking collective also included a link to Smith’s listing on the Texas Public Sex Offender Registry.
“Our objective is to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of humanity,” Hayalim Almonim said in a statement to the Jerusalem Post, adding that they wanted to “bathe in their tears, and mock at the gnashing of their teeth.”
“There is a lot more coming,” a Hayalim Almonim member said in a statement to the BBC.
The hacking group also announced that they would be providing further updates on their activities and intended targets via their Twitter account @justice_jew, and their website jewishantifa.com.
Takeaways:
- Hacking is a political tool, whether we look at the catfishing of Capitol rioters on the Bumble dating site or the ransomware gangs targeting pro-BLM non-profit organizations.
- While the targets may seem to be getting what they deserve, people whose identities have been revealed online, or doxxed, can face significant personal danger. There is a self-deputizing aspect to these hacks that is disturbing, and anti-democratic. Our dedication to democratic ideals is always tested by the more reprehensible among us. All hacking is wrong, and we must opt for legal justice over the vigilante approach.
- Domain names by default publicly list the personal information of their owners. There are add-ons and services to protect their privacy, but it is not a terribly difficult task for a decent hacker and/or OSINT researcher to re-identify supposedly anonymized information in an online environment.
