Anonymous Takes Credit for Amazon, PlayStation Christmas Hack

A Twitter account that claims affiliation to Anonymous released a trove of alleged consumer data from various companies the day after Christmas.

The Twitter account @AnonymousGlobo warned its followers on Dec. 23 that a data dump was coming; three days later, on Dec. 26, the account released what it claims are the passwords and usernames of 13,000 accounts on services including Amazon, PlayStation, Xbox Live, Wal-Mart, Dell, EA Games, Hulu Plus and more.

The leak included credit card numbers, security codes and expiration dates of the cards. At least one company, CyberGhost, said that the hack did not present a security threat to its customers, though confirmed that among the data leaked were free activation keys.

PlayStation and Xbox live both suffered a network crash on Christmas day, but hacker group Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for that outage.

While the alleged data dump may be frustrating, it was not entirely unexpected. Experts predicted that 2014’s holiday season would be prime time for security breaches, as 2013’s was. Last year, Target was hit just before Christmas, as millions of its shoppers’ card data was stolen. This year, perhaps the most high-profile Christmastime hack was that of Sony, a scandal that remains unsolved.

The hack allegedly performed by Anonymous ended with a leak for a download of the controversial comedic film, “The Interview.”