New hacker group branches out to Hollywood

A new hacker gang is in town, and it's not after government secrets. Instead, it's going after movie scripts, Twitter accounts, and juicy secrets in the entertainment industry. The group "Hollywood Leaks" has been breaking into entertainment industry insiders' email accounts for the last few weeks and disclosing their findings, newsmagazine/blog Gawker reported. Gawker said the group is an offshoot of the hacktivist group Anonymous, which had gained controversity for leaking details of government or corporate sites it hacks into. "We're simply here to facilitate the free flow of information from a place which was previously over looked, Hollywood," Gawker quoted a Hollywood Leaks representative as saying in an email. It described the group as a "loose-knit band of Internet troublemakers—probably no more than five or six core members—who organize in raucous chat rooms and promote their hacks on their Twitter account." "But where Anonymous is super seriously concerned with world politics and the Church of Scientology, Hollywood Leaks just wants to make celebs sweat," it said. Gawker said the group has cracked the email account of an actor in the upcoming Tom Cruise musical, Rock of Ages. It said the group downloaded the script sent by director Peter Shankman to his cast, and put it on The Pirate Bay. Also, it said the group had posted the cell phone numbers of about a dozen celebrities to the hacker-friendly document sharing site Pastebin.com, including those of Miley Cyrus, Lil Jon, and Ashley Greene. Twitter takeover Gawker reported that during the recently concluded MTV Video Music Awards, rapper Kreayshawn had her Twitter account taken over by the group, which used it to tweet nude pictures stolen from her cell phone to her 300,000 followers. Gawker quoted the "Hollywood Leaks" members as saying they are just getting started. "We're currently sitting on several unreleased movie scripts, and enough numbers/emails to keep phones ringing and the inboxes full for the foreseeable future," they said. — RSJ, GMA News