Anonymous has just hacked into the European Space Agency, and it seems the group did so just for the fun of it.
The hacking collective has released data from ESA on JustPaste.it, leaking information in the database schema of the agency's website and details of its registered users, subscribers and collaborators. Included in the data are the email addresses, usernames and passwords of the accounts on the website.
Anonymous often carries out DDoS attacks, infiltrates databases and defaces website in behalf of certain causes. Last month, the group declared total war against ISIS following the brutal attacks in Paris which killed over 130 people. Anonymous declared the same against businessman and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after he voiced out a proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
However, with nothing to prove and no cause behind it, Anonymous breached the website (esa.int) for seemingly no reason.
The group also claimed to have targeted the exploration.esa.int, due.esrin.esa.int and sci.esa.int domains, but there is no proof that the websites themselves have been defaced. It looks as if the hackers only targeted and infiltrated the ESA database.
Experts in information security have said that most of the infiltrations are nothing more than opportunistic chances that present themselves to hackers that discover vulnerabilities in the defenses of a server. The hackers perform the breach and then just think of a way to justify it afterwards.
Such seems to be the case with the hack that Anonymous carried out against the ESA, as there looks to be no connection between the hacking group and the agency. This is compared to the attacks of Anonymous when it declared war against Donald Trump, with the hacking group posting a YouTube video that warned the real estate tycoon after Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country.
After Anonymous uploaded the video, the website of the Trump Tower crashed and remained down for over an hour, with a Twitter account associated with Anonymous claiming responsibility for the action.
