Earlier this week the hacker
group Anonymous declared ‘’war’’ on GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, calling
his behavior “deeply disturbing.”
On Thursday, Anonymous started
to follow through on that promise, reportedly posting personal information
about Trump online. Most of it was already public, like his birthday, his place
of birth, and his legal counsel, but there were a few titbits that had been
private, namely his (alleged) social security number and the number to his cell
phone, according to USA Today.
In saying it would target Trump;
Anonymous cited the White House hopeful’s characterization of Mexicans as
“rapists,” his mocking of a disabled reporter, and his insults against women as
its motivation for cyber-attacks. The group’s hackers often use distributed
denial of service attacks--overwhelming floods of Internet traffic--to pummel
computer servers.
The Anonymous YouTube
page had asked participants to target the website "trumpchicago.com"
on April 1, or April Fool's Day in the U.S., but based on the information
posted Thursday, it looks like the group got a head start.
When asked for comment, Trump’s
spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not say whether the information posted online was
legitimate but told Fortune in an email that “government and law
enforcement authorities are seeking the arrest of the people responsible for
attempting to illegally hack Mr. Trump's accounts and telephone information.”