INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Hackers Continue Assault On Westboro Baptist Church, Release Social Security Numbers

By Melissa Stusinski
Published on: 10:55 PST, Dec 16, 2012

Commentary | With many people understandably upset that Westboro Baptist Church plans to protest the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre and sing praises to God that children were killed, it is hard not to cheer for Anonymous in their latest battle against the “church.”

As The Inquisitr previously reported, the hacktivist group began the latest battle on Saturday when they sent out an updated list of the names and addresses of church members. They later released a video, right before hacking the church’s website, in which they said:

“We will not allow you to corrupt the minds of America with your seeds of hatred. We will not allow you to inspire aggression to the social factions which you deem inferior. We will render you obsolete. We will destroy you. We are coming.”

And come they did. Using the Twitter accounts @YourAnonNews, @LulzExecutive, @Shm00pLOL, and others, they posted sensitive information about Westboro Baptist Church members. The information included social security numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and even the family tree (i.e. how the members are connected to each other).

The groups also taunted Westboro Baptist Church members with the information they uncovered. While, again, it is difficult not to cheer for the groups as they work together to bring down a “church” that preaches hate to the world, it also begs the question on what information is too much to disclose.

Is it morally okay for a group to disclose sensitive information (such as a social security number) about a person, even if the person is, arguably, as deplorable as members of the WBC? It certainly is illegal, as each stolen social security number can cost five years in prison. Members of all groups understand too well what it means to be caught with the information. Former Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown was just charged with stealing sensitive information — including credit card numbers.

In this case, however, with a group that spreads only hate-filled messages, it is possible we can overlook the laws that Anonymous and others are breaking as they work to bring down Westboro Baptist Church. Below are a collection of tweets from the groups’ exploits so far on Saturday:

Do you think that Anonymous and other hackers are going too far in their war against Westboro Baptist Church or is this hacktivisim at its finest?

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