Hackers have released a list containing the names and personal information of alleged members of the racist group the Ku Klux Klan. The list includes U.S. senators and southern state city mayors.
The published information includes phone numbers and email addresses of administrators of the Klan’s websites, as well as other prominent members. The released information came from two sources, one group claiming to be affiliated with the hacktivist group Anonymous, and the other a sole vigilante hacker known as Amped Attacks.
Last week, the group threatened to publish the information and did so today in a series of Pastebins.
In accompanying statements and Twitter messages to the media, the hacking group says the goal behind the release of information is to “draw attention” to an operation, dubbed OpKKK, which will allow the public to email and call the alleged KKK members to tell them “what they think.”
Amped Attacks’ released information contains the names of four senators and five mayors, allegedly affiliated with the KKK.
Amped Attacks says he “found” his information by breaking into a “few sites,” belonging to the KKK where he found databases with emails linked to the politicians named in the list. He says he decided to only release the names.
“The reason I do not list the addresses of these people is I do not want anybody to easily see this and take criminal action against these racist scum,” he writes.
Meanwhile, some of the senators and mayors named in the list have denied the accusations.
“The claim is 100% false,” a spokesperson for Sen. John Coryn of Texas says. “I don’t know what evidence that he’s provided. He’s provided none. It’s just ridiculous.”
Jim Gray, the mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, tweeted his denial saying the accusation is “false, insulting and ridiculous”. He added that he has “never had any relationship of any kind with the KKK.”
Tom Henry, mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, also tweeted his denial calling the allegations “totally false and irresponsible.”
The mayor of of Norfolk, Virginia, Paul Fraim echoed the denials saying, “The claim is absolutely false and defamatory. There is no truth to their statement whatsoever. I am not and have never been affiliated with any such organization. I find it incredulous that these people can hide behind their computers and create such an inaccurate and hateful statement.”
Indiana’s Republican Senator Dan Coats says the accusation are “baseless Internet garbage of the worst kind.”
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