Anonymous Targets University Of Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Just when the University of Pittsburgh community is starting to breathe again, here comes another threat.

Only this time it's not a bomb threat but a cyber threat.

Under the banner of Anonymous, a video placed on YouTube decries the way Pitt handles its cyber security.

The threat claims to have hacked into the University's computer system and extracted all sorts of personal data that it will release if its demands are not met.

Cyber security experts say Anonymous has no structure and members come and go with their individual causes.

People who stage cyber attacks under the Anonymous banner might strike once and never again. In most cases attacks are designed to block access to websites, not unlike a cyber sit-in.

But in other cases, like the one being threatened at Pitt, the hacktivists get personal information from the target organization's computer and if their demands are not met they release that information to the public. Credit card numbers are a favorite tool.

Anonymous is demanding that the University post on its website an apology to all students, faculty, and staff for what it considers Pitt's lack of security and concern for the personal information of its people.

In the case of the University of Pittsburgh, spokesman Robert Hill tells KDKA, "The University has examined its systems. There is no evidence of any breach."

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