Royal Bank of Scotland in Anonymous crosshairs

Anonymous

Anonymous has announced its intention to target the Royal Bank of Scotland as part of an operation campaigning against "big oil."

The hacktivist group said Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Canadian Oil Sands and Imperial Oil were also in its sights.

Those companies have been involved in developing the Alberta, Canada oil sands, an operation which has caused controversy amongst environmentalists.

Anonymous did not go into any detail on what it would do as part of Operation Green Rights.

"Anonymous now joins the struggle against "Big Oil" in the heartland of the US. We stand in solidarity with any citizen willing to protest corporate abuse," the group said.

"Operation Green Rights will always support the rights of the people to live in an unpolluted world, and aim to help safeguard it for the future. One way or another."

Anonymous has also claimed a hit on international agricultural business Monsanto.

The hacktivist group said it had released addresses, emails and phone numbers of more than 2,500 Monsanto workers and affiliates.

"Anonymous didn't release details on types of systems, flaws or anything else that might explain how they acquired the stolen information. They claim to have taken down Monsanto web assets and mail servers," said Sophos senior security advisor Chester Wisniewski, in a blog post.

"Anonymous mentioned port 6666 being open on a Monsanto server, implying that they might set up an IRC channel on the compromised host. Anonymous also stated they intend to create a wiki for sharing and organising their stolen information."

Tom Brewster

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.