PayPal Denies It Was Hacked By Anonymous

The hacktivist group Anonymous was associated with multiple hacks on Monday, but PayPal says the group's claim against it isn't true.

Members of the hacktivist group stated on Twitter that they had breached PayPal and several other sites Monday in honor of the U.K.'s Guy Fawkes Night.

Fawkes, who tried to burn the British Parliament in the 16th century, is sometimes viewed as a symbol of protest. His famous mask, which was also featured in the 2006 movie "V is for Vendetta," has been adopted by Anonymous as its primary symbol.

The tweets said that Anonymous members had attacked a variety of targets, including PayPal, Symantec, and several Australian government sites. In news reports, NBC and a Lady Gaga fan site acknowledged defacement by the hacktivist group.

The tweets stated that some 28,000 passwords that were dumped during the attack belonged to PayPal customers. After examining the dump, PayPal denied the claim. According to the news reports, the passwords actually belong to ZPanel, an open-source hosting site.

A hacker who calls himself HTP says he has breached the security vendor Symantec. He released what he said were the passwords of Symantec employees on the Pastebin. However, Anonymous said that HTP is not affiliated with the group, and the primary Twitter accounts associated with Anonymous did not claim credit for the attacks.

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