SOPA support gets UFC president hacked
Anonymous is suspected of posting personal information, including the Social Security number, of mixed-martial artist honcho Dana White after he made comments supportive of SOPA and critical of Anonymous.
In a recent interview, mixed-martial arts chief Dana White suggested that members of the hacktivist group Anonymous were "cowards" and "terrorists."
White, who helped found the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the nation's largest promoter of mixed-martial arts fights, then engaged alleged members of Anonymous in a debate via Twitter about his support for the controversial and now seemingly defunct Stop Online Piracy Act and the morality of hacking sites as a political statement.
According to a CNN report, Anonymous got the final word. Shortly after the debate, someone posted to the Internet White's social security number, mobile phone number, address, and, for a brief period, his wife's name.
White is only the latest copyright owner or public figure to see their personal information posted to the Web as part of hack attacks launched by Anonymous. The group is accused of circulating personal information belonging to Jeff Bewkes, CEO of media conglomerate Time Warner, and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
The attacks began when Anonymous hacked into UFC's Web site a week ago and briefly redirected traffic to a site associated with the group. That's when White made his comments about cowards and terrorists. On Thursday evening a Twitter debate ensued between White and @YourAnonNews, a Twitter account closely associated with Anonymous.
The debate was heated for a while but then both sides seemed to agree to disagree, and that was it. Or at least that was it until White's personal information was published.
This is what White told MMA Fighting which seemed to draw the ire of Anonymous:
The way this whole thing has gone down, them hacking our site is the best thing they ever could have done for us. Because what that does is, now, you look like terrorists and now a lot of people who were afraid of you now hate you. Is this bill [that is, SOPA] perfect? No. No bill is perfect. I think this thing started off with the right idea. Stealing is stealing.
You can read the entire Twitter debate here.