After tech activist Aaron Swartz’ death, Anonymous decided that the justice system in the US was deeply flawed. Swartz, who was an essential player in the design of web feed RSS and the social news site Reddit, was arrested by the federal government for downloading JSTOR academic journal articles shortly before his death. In response, Anonymous hacked into the US Sentencing Commission website, a move they called “Operation Last Resort.”

“Two weeks ago today, a line was crossed,” said the group’s message to those who asked. “Two weeks ago today, Aaron Swartz was killed. Killed because he faced an impossible choice. Killed because he was forced into playing a game he could not win — a twisted and distorted perversion of justice — a game where the only winning move was not to play.”

Anonymous wouldn’t state exactly was in the stolen files, but they did encourage thousands to download the files and hold onto them. They simply said that “Everyone has secrets, and some things are not meant to be public.”

The file, however, was locked by a decryption key, one that Anonymous did not plan on distributing anytime soon.

Anonymous wants to warn everyone who has a web presence – including large and small companies – that they “may be on the target list.”

Image credit: Chapinat

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