Twitter to Stop Hackers from Spreading Secrets of 9/11 Attacks

A hacker group has claimed that they have a large cache of confidential information related to 9/11 attacks, and have threatened to reveal the “secret”. Twitter has moved to vanquish the account of the hacking group, citing the latest enforcement of a recently adopted policy against the distribution of hacked materials.

The policy, which forbids the spread of stolen “private information or trade secrets,” is but one of several cyber law introduced in the face of heightened scrutiny by Washington lawmakers. The US intelligence believes such periodic revelation and attacks are kind of weaponization of the social media by entities tied to the Russian government.

The group in its announcement published on Pastebin, referred to several different legal firms and insurers, claiming specifically that it hacked Hiscox Syndicates Ltd, Lloyds of London, and Silverstein Properties, the Motherboard reported on Tuesday.

The biggest insurers on the planet that are insuring everything from the smallest policies to the largest policies is “Hiscox Syndicates Ltd and Lloyds of London. The group said in the announcement that even World Trade Center is insured with them.

Black-hat hackers have been making merry over the years with stolen material on the platform, often with little or no consequence. Anonymous and LulzSec are the Hacktivist is the popular accounts where confidential data lifted from the servers of major corporations were openly shared. The data dates back to as 2011.

Giving it a start Twitter is apparently confirming that things are going to change, and unchecked propagation of stolen secrets will not find a place.

The account of a hacking group calling itself The Dark Overlord was suspended by Twitter. This comes close to the heels when the group announced about the theft of what it said were roughly 18,000 confidential documents related to 9/11 attacks. It claimed to have stolen from a company handling related insurance litigation.

Breach-related news, databreaches.net confirmed that the initial hack was, first reported in April, but failed to garner enough attention Dark Overlord identified multiple insurance firms from which it claimed it acquired the stolen cache: Hiscox Syndicates Ltd., Lloyd’s of London, and Silverstein Properties.

A spokesperson for the Hiscox Group confirmed that the hackers had breached a law firm that advised the company, and likely stolen files related to litigation viz-a-viz the 9/11 attacks.

Hiscox in a public statement sought to distance itself from the breach, saying its IT infrastructure is in no way linked to a law firm that it hired, which it claimed is the source of the leaked material. “One of the cases the law firm handled for Hiscox and other insurers related to subrogation litigation arising from the events of 9/11, and we believe that information relating to this was stolen during that breach,” the company said.

Hiscox’s statement casts doubt on that claim because the group claims to have hacked each of the three insurance firms it identified. The law firm itself has not yet been identified and the Dark Overlord reportedly declined to explain itself after Hiscox’s response.

Lloyd’s of London and Silverstein Properties could not be immediately reached for comment.

In addition to screenshots of the hacked files shared via links on Pastebin, the threat group also shared a link to an archive, which it said was divided into five well-encrypted containers. The numbered containers are said to contain progressively more scandalous material tied to the 9/11 attacks. The group advised journalists to download the archive now, adding: “As time goes on, we may publicly release keys for each of these containers if our requests from the involved companies are not met.”

The group has demanded money in exchange for not releasing the material. “Pay the f..ck up, or we’re going to bury you with this,” it said in an open letter. Meanwhile, the group claims to have put the documents up for sale on the dark web.

While the sample documents appear to be authentic, those released so far appear typical of what one might expect from legal disputes over the most significant terrorist attacks in modern history. The full range of the material is unknown, but the hacking group described them thusly:

The type of documents, specifically? E-mails, litigation strategies, non-disclosure agreements, a collection of expert witness testimonies, retainer agreements, defense formations, settlements, testimonies, liability analysis, communications with the government across the world, voice mails, dealings with the FBI, and more, confidential communications, and more.

It is also clear that the group hopes to exploit incredible theories surrounding the attacks and those deemed responsible by less than reputable sources. On Monday, the group tweeted it would be “providing many answers about 9.11 conspiracies through our 18.000 secret documents leak.”

Potentially, the dredging up of conspiratorial notions about 9/11 is a tactic to inflame attention on social media and force the hands of those who stand to lose most by having proprietary information spread online; chiefly, the attorneys and various insurers involved.

Nevertheless, the true motivations of the hackers are very clear. Actually, they spell it out very clearly “We’re not motivated by any political thoughts. We’re not hacktivists,” they wrote. “We’re motivated only by our pursuit of internet money (Bitcoin).”

Twitter, spokesperson to Gizmo about on the suspension of the Dark Overlord’s account, said: “We don’t comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.”