A bit reminiscent of the idea to Robin Hood: A hacker, known under the pseudonym Phineas Fisher, has hacked a "motherboard" report, an offshore bank whose customer data leaked and also looted money from the bank in his digital bank robbery - that he wants to redistribute to other hackers.
According to the motherboard, more than 600,000 internal documents, such as emails from the Cayman National Bank and Trust on the Isle of Man, a British tax haven, were released through the Distributed Denial of Secrets platform.
Phineas Fisher is committed to the leak - and he wants to motivate others with a reward of up to $ 100,000 to also attack companies with questionable business practices. The hacker had announced his "Hacktivist Bug Hunting Program" in a manifesto released on Friday, as "Motherboard" reports.
Typically, companies praise such reward programs so that hackers directly report security vulnerabilities in programs instead of selling or exploiting them on the black market. Phineas Fisher, on the other hand, wants to reward politically motivated hacks - hacking attacks or data leaks of public interest.
"I'm not trying to make someone rich"
"Hacking to obtain and leak public interest documents is one of the best ways for hackers to use their skills for the good of society," the manifesto states. "I'm not trying to make someone rich, I'm just trying to make enough money so that hackers can live a decent life while doing a good job." The reward for successful attacks should be paid in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Monero.
Phineas Fisher - who's exactly behind the pseudonym, is so far unclear - has even become known with such political motivated attacks. In 2014, Phineas Fisher announced a data leak surrounding the Gamma Group, the maker of the controversial spy program FinFisher, which spied on governments and police forces including journalists, activists and dissidents.
Information such as customer names, manuals and prices were published, supplemented by a tutorial that should encourage others to "Hackback". Phineas Fisher should also be behind the attack on the Italian spy software manufacturer Hacking Team and have also acted against the Turkish ruling party. The hack on the offshore bank was carried out in 2016 according to the manifesto, Phineas Fisher wants to have thereby "captured a few hundred thousand dollars".