14 DAY TRIAL // Anonymous has published around 400 MB of confidential documents involving ManTech, a large federal contractor which provides IT solutions to many government departments.
The hacktivist collective announced plans to release the files yesterday and even posted some teaser samples to prove it means business.
The full archive was eventually released in true Anonymous style, with a press release on Pastebin and a torrent on ThePirateBay.
"Today is Friday and we will be following the tradition of humiliating our friends from the FBI once again. This time we hit one of their biggest contractors for cyber security: Mantech International Corporation," the group writes.
However, while it tries to focus on ManTech's connection with the FBI, the leaked files are actually contracts and other documents related to the company's dealings with NATO.
The group does claim that it "pwned ManTech utterly and thoroughly," but this doesn't necessarily mean that it hacked into its own network or systems. In fact, Anonymous let it slip yesterday that these files are from an earlier compromise of NATO servers.
"We'll release about 500 megabyte of this [expletive] by today. A real fun #FFF. And yes , NATO, this was your leak. Expected us? #AntiSec #FFFriday," the group tweeted yesterday.
The hacktivists even mention this in the press release associated with the leak. "Most of the documents in this first batch are related to NATO who, you may recall, made some bold claims regarding Anonymous earlier this year," they write.
ManTech has responded to incident with a statement on its website, but didn't mention if the breach originated on its network or somewhere else. "ManTech takes seriously recent reports of a cyber threat, and we responsibly and actively address all sources of information about threats to our information and assets and those of our customers," the company wrote.
But regardless of the source of the leaked documents, the fact that the confidential contracts of yet another company supplying technology to the government were exposed does not help taxpayer confidence at all. This is the sixth government contractor targeted as part of Anonymous' Operation AntiSec.