Antisec hacks FBI contractor Mantech

DESPITE RECENT ARRESTS Anonymous is preparing another leak of sensitive documents, in defiance of government efforts to intimidate its members.

Anonymous claims to be in the possession of sensitive documents involving US federal IT contractor Mantech, which it plans to release later today as part of its ongoing online war against US national security police state agencies.

Mantech apparently supplies information technology services to the US State, Justice, Defense and Homeland Security Departments, but the teaser documents published by Anonymous so far are contracts between the company and NATO.

In fact, Anonymous mentioned on Twitter that the files it plans to release came from NATO rather than Mantech. "We'll release about 500 megabyte of this shit by today. A real fun #FFF. And yes, NATO, this was your leak," the group tweeted.

Last week Anonymous announced that it had managed to break into NATO's network and steal around one gigabyte of classified documents. The group said at the time that it wouldn't release the files because that would be irresponsible.

However, the recent law enforcement actions targeting its members might have influenced it to reconsider. On Tuesday the FBI revealed that it is investigating twelve people for their roles in DDoS attacks against Koch Industries orchestrated by Anonymous in February.

Then on Wednesday the UK Metropolitan Police announced the arrest of an 18-year-old man believed to be one of the group's main spokespersons. The Met Police alleged the young man is "Topiary", the hacktivist who edited most press releases issued by Lulzsec and Anonymous.

But not everyone believes that Topiary was arrested. Skeptics point to a chat log released earlier this month by rival hacktivist th3j35t3r in which Topiary appears to confirm the rumours that he is Swedish. The hacker also said that his nickname originally belonged to a "troll" from Ireland or Scotland, whom he hoped would take the fall for his actions.

"I'm hoping someone will go after him and think it's me, then I'll act all scared etc," Topiary wrote to his chat partner. The log is of a discussion that occurred shortly after the HBGary Federal hack.

According to the Metropolitan Police, the suspect was arrested at an address in Shetland Islands, Scotland, which seems to match the alleged location of the nickname's original owner.

But there is also evidence to suggest the police might have the real Topiary in their custody. For one, the Lulzsec Twitter account believed to be controlled by the hacktivist went silent on 27 July before the arrest announcement.

Also, The Scotsman newspaper quotes a Shetland native who says the arrested man was not a local and might be from Germany. The live interviews given by Topiary on behalf of Anonymous reveal that he has a Germanic accent which might as well be Swedish.

The Met Police says that two previous arrests resulted from the same investigation. One was that of a 19-year-old man who was charged and is expected to appear in court in August, and a 16-year-old boy was questioned but released on bail. The first suspect is probably former Anonymous member Ryan Cleary, while the latter might be the Lulzsec affiliated person with the handle "tflow" who, according to Fox News, was arrested in South London last week.

Update
The Metropolitan Police just responded to our inquiry about the suspect's nationality. "The man arrested is British and remains in custody at this time," Scotland Yard spokeswoman Julie Prinsep said. Assuming the chat logs have not been fabricated and Topiary is indeed Swedish as several reports indicated in the past, the police might have the wrong man. We also asked if the suspect was charged with any crime, but we haven't received an answer to this question. µ