Anonymous claims it hacked NATO Web site

LONDON, July 21 (UPI) -- The group calling itself Anonymous claimed credit Thursday for hacking into NATO computer servers and said it acquired restricted "interesting data."

"Yes, #NATO was breached. And we have lots of restricted material. With some simple injection. In the next days, wait for interesting data," a message purporting to represent the group said on the @AnonymousIRC Twitter feed.

The group posted a link to a restricted NATO PDF file that Anonymous alleged described the outsourcing of a communications and information system in Kosovo in 2008, the year Kosovo declared its independence.

The document crashed because of too many connections, PC Magazine reported.

The group posted a 2007 document about a similar IT project in Afghanistan Wednesday night.

"NATO is aware that a hackers group has released what it claims to be NATO classified documents on the Internet," NATO spokesman Damien Arnaud said in a statement.

"NATO security experts are investigating these claims," his statement said. "We strongly condemn any leak of classified documents, which can potentially endanger the security of NATO allies, armed forces and citizens."

Anonymous said it "cannot" publish most of the data it retrieved because that "would be irresponsible."

The hacking comes about two months after NATO General Rapporteur Michael Jopling cited Anonymous in a draft information and national-security report, saying the "hactivist" group was "becoming more and more sophisticated and could potentially hack into sensitive government, military and corporate files."

Anonymous has conducted denial-of-service attacks, preventing access to the Web sites of PayPal, Visa and MasterCard after the companies suspended the accounts of WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing Web site that became the focus of a global debate over its role in the release of thousands of confidential messages about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the conduct of U.S. diplomacy around the world.

The FBI arrested 14 suspected Anonymous members Tuesday for alleged roles in attacking PayPal.

Anonymous and the Lulz Security hacking group issued a "joint statement" to the FBI Thursday.

"Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea," the message said.

The group said it understood the FBI "may find breaking into Web sites unacceptable," but it said its members found unacceptable "governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece."

It also said it disliked "corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking advantage at the same time by collecting billions of funds for federal contracts we all know they can't fulfill."