An arm of the online collective Anonymous said it had broken into the computer systems of Booz Allen Hamilton and then posted the details on the internet.
They apparently were only able to get encrypted versions of the email passwords, around 53,000 of which carried the military “.mil” domains.
Email addresses are valuable to hackers because the owners can be sent spoof emails designed to entice them to click on a link to download malicious software.
Anup Ghosh, founder of the Invincea security company, said: “Usually five to 20 per cent of recipients will click if it's a well-crafted email,"
The hackers also wiped out four gigabytes of Booz Allen source code in an attack they called “Military Meltdown Monday.”
The group said: “We infiltrated a server on their network that basically had no security measures in place.”
Booz Allen provides technological services including cyber-security consulting to the military and other US government agencies. Its staff includes Michael McConnell , former director of the National Security Agency.
A Defence Department spokesman said: “We are aware of the incident and coordinating with our federal partners.”
Chris Palmer, of digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said those exposed by the leak “should probably be changing their passwords urgently.”
A spoeksamn for Booz Allen said its security policy meant “we generally do not comment on specific threats or actions taken against our systems.”
The hacking group responded with the comment: “You have a security policy? We never noticed.”
Anonymous became well known late last year for attacking companies including Amazon, Bank of America, Mastercard and Visa, that had cut off services to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
Another rogue group, Lulz Security, broke into a US Senate server, brought down the CIA website and struck an Arizona police website last month
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8631458/Hackers-st...
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