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Thousands of e-mails apparently taken from within Iran’s government networks were uploaded to file-sharing Web sites on Friday.

Anonymous, a group of activist computer hackers, posted more than 10,000 e-mails on Friday that it said were taken from Iranian government servers.

Most of the e-mails were related to visa requests for people hoping to enter Iran, with the bulk of the messages being sent from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to visa-seekers. The group apparently intended the release to demonstrate that it could successfully penetrate Iranian networks.

A file containing the e-mails was originally uploaded to the file-sharing Web site The Pirate Bay and shared freely with the hope that a large number of people would download the messages. Anonymous members later posted the files on dozens of other file-sharing sites, asking people to help distribute and archive the documents.

A person who claimed responsibility for the data breach also posted instructions showing how the group gained access to the Iranian servers and suggested how to proceed with further attacks on the Iranian government.

One of the suggested next steps included bringing down a number of Iranian Web sites with a denial of service attack. The person also warned other Anonymous users to focus only on Web sites in Iran, noting that the goal of the operation was “about freeing the oppressed.”

The collection of e-mails uploaded to the file-shari... >>>