The hackers demand the release of arrested hacktivists

Mar 9, 2012 09:31 GMT  ·  By

The saga that illustrates the cyber-battle between world renowned security solutions provider Symantec and Anonymous hacktivists continues. The hackers published the alleged source code of Norton Antivirus 2006, which they obtained during a breach that took place in 2006.

Not long ago, the hackers claimed they possessed the source code of Symantec’s pcAnywhere, an incident that forced the security company to advise its customers to stop using the application.

Now, the hackers posted the 1.4 gigabyte source code on The Pirate Bay, the 26,742 files being accompanied by a protest message against the recent arrests made by law enforcement agencies.

“All conflict comes from social inequality and those who use this to their advantage. Our civilization is facing a radical, imminent mass change,” the hackers wrote.

“The alternative to the hierarchical power structure is based on mutual aid and group consensus. As hackers we can learn these systems, manipulate these systems, and shut down these systems if we need to.”

The AntiSec hackers also demand the release of Jeremy Hammond, also known as sup_g, Kayla, Palladium, Topiary, Pwnsauce, and others that have been apprehended recently.

Sabu, the one that’s accused of high treason by the hacktivist collective is no longer considered a true Anonymous and his release is not requested.

The source code made available on this occasion could be legitimate, although some modifications were made to the release notes and other documents. For instance, document files that contained dates were altered to display the current date.

Symantec may have hoped that the pcAnywhere incident would represent the end of this unfortunate situation, but as it turns out, the battle is not by far over.

Stay tuned to find out how Symantec responds. It will be interesting to see if other advisories will be released regarding customer safety.