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An Anonymous Cell Pledges to Hack 'New CISPA' Supporters

Bill sponsors like Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss are at the top of the list.

A group of hackers affiliated with Anonymous vowed to target lawmakers who are championing the new cybersecurity bill currently making its way through the Senate, threatening to dox and hack them and any corporations who support the bill.

In a video posted last weekend, TheAnonMessage, an Anonymous splinter cell that also recently declared war on the Islamic State, says the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014 is a "direct attack against the fourth amendment of the Bill of Rights," and is also "an attack against [Anonymous]."

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Bill sponsors Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss say CISA will help companies fight hackers by letting them obtain classified cyber threat information from the government, but civil liberties experts say the bill is written in such a way that it would expand NSA surveillance of citizens and could even threaten net neutrality.

So far, the video, and, perhaps, the operation, being called #OpCISA, hasn't gotten much traction—the YouTube video only has 1,600 views and a chatroom set up for planning was empty the couple times I checked it. But I spoke to one of the group's members on Twitter, who told me its members are serious about disrupting the bill.

"First, we spread awareness of the bill. Get people to know what it's all about. Then in phase 2, we d0x and deface subjects who support the bill and their websites," he told me. "Then in phase 3, we coordinate physical protests with organizations like ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild to try and stop this bill from ever getting passed."

The operative told me the plan is essentially the same one that the group did the last two times that CISPA was considered by Congress. Those bills had considerably more opposition from the internet masses, sparking Anonymous-led blackouts and widespread online protests. Anonymous doxed bill sponsor Mike Rogers, though I couldn't find any other doxings related to the bill. To be fair, opposition to the CISPA bills didn't start in earnest until the legislation was being seriously considered by the House of Representatives. CISA still has yet to be considered by even the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Anonymous operative I talked to said that the group will be doxing and hacking websites "soon," and that bill sponsors Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss are at the top of the list, as are "the NSA, AT&T, IBM, and other corporations who are lobbying for this bill."

The Daily Dot reported yesterday that Capitol Police are aware of the threat, but the person I spoke with told me that the organization "does not condone violence in any way."

"We believe our methods are legal," he said. "It's all based on free speech, and no one can attack free speech."