Anonymous, the hacking group that needs no introduction, has published a list of phone numbers and email addresses that they say belong to members of the Klu Klux Klan - and they say more is on the way. Computerworld reports that as of yesterday the group had posted email addresses and phone numbers to Pastebin. And according to a press release from the group, much more information will be published on Nov. 5, to coincide with the first anniversary of the Ferguson protests.
The info was distributed via Twitter accounts that have been known to deliver news from Anonymous in the past. They posted links to four different databases that contained over 50 phone numbers and over 20 email addresses. There's a website dedicated to counting down to "HoodsOff 2015" --- the day (Nov. 5) when Anonymous will release a barrage of information they say will reveal who is involved in the KKK.
However upon further inspection of the initial data dump, the information has been widely discredited. Members of the press reached to several of the persons listed who were adamant in denying any relationship with KKK. Furthermore, the list included nine politicians, four U.S. senators and five U.S. mayors, who have all publicly denied the claims. Meanwhile, the "official" OperationKKK account is distancing itself from the bogus dump.
The first time we heard about Operation KKK (also known as #OpKKK) was last year during the protests in Ferguson, MO. A local KKK chapter threatened protesters with violence, and then Anonymous hacked into a KKK Twitter account and released what they said was KKK member personal information.
One of the working theories is that the data released thus far belongs to a database hack, potentially from a KKK group, but it's been wrongly assumed that anyone whose contact information is in a KKK database must be a KKK member.