'Anonymous' Hackers Hit Iran Government

Iran is trying to ban open Internet, and a group of particularly adept hackers probably has Tehran hoping it can speed things along. The notorious Anonymous group infiltrated government servers and got its hands on more than 10,000 email messages from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Next Web reports. It's not exactly bombshell stuff, more along the lines of approvals and rejections for visas and passports. But the intent was more to harass and embarrass, one member tells MSNBC.

“It’s near the election’s anniversary," says another. "We had to do something." He adds that Anonymous has "a complete DDoS attack day" planned for the actual anniversary date of June 12. The targets will again be government sites, but not the media. Unless they're propaganda engines like this government-run site that asks citizens to identify posted photos of rioters. (More Iran stories.)