Skilled computer system hackers allied to the secret Anonymous Portugal group has been at it again despite many of their number having been arrested in February and charged for sins against the state.
The arrests earlier in the year included that of the journalist Rui Cruz who runs the Tugaleaks website plus seven alleged members of Anonymous whose activities have been causing deep embarrassment to the government.
The latest raid on government data has resulted in the personal details of judges and lawyers being posted online, also email addresses of EDP management and staff.
The early morning raid hampered access to the official websites of the Judicial Police, the Supreme Judicial Council and the Citius portal which is meant to run the country's court system.
On the Anonymous Facebook page, the group claimed to have disabled the police and court sites but these again became available early on Sunday morning.
The director of the Computer Crime Unit of the Judicial Police said he was aware of the situation and was investigating the latest serious breach of security.
The list of 1,300 lawyers from the Attorney General's Office and the data held on Portugal’s judges was made available for several hours, enough time for anyone to make copies for future use.
The head of Operation Caretos, which is building evidence for prosecutions of those arrested in February, Pedro Verdelho has his picture published on the anonymous site with the trademark Anonymous moustache added.
The Anonymous raid on government sites was under the umbrella heading of ‘Tango, Tango, Tango, Down - April 25th - national blackout’ and various messages were posted such as "The government should fear the people and not the people fear the government" and "Enough robbing of the poor, no more lies."
The first message posted by shortly after midnight, read: "Today is the day!" There was a picture of Salgueiro Maia, a captain in the army who made significant contribution to the April Revolution in 1974, with the phrase, "Sometimes you have to disobey."
The website of Águas de Portugal also was hacked and an image of a red carnation, the symbol of the revolution, was loaded onto the home page.
The Anonymous Facebook page ran the Socialist Party symbol in manipulated form with the slogan, "Fuck You Partido Socialista" added for good measure.
https://www.facebook.com/AnonymousPORTUGAL
