It's War: Anonymous Hacks Donald Trump

Anonymous – the nation’s most infamous hacking organization – announced earlier this week that it would be hacking Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. Total war was declared in a video in which a masked figure calls Trump’s behavior “deeply disturbing” and warns of an attack on TrumpChicago.com on April 1st. 

The first wave of the attack came yesterday when Anonymous posted personal information about Donald Trump online. Apart from an alleged phone number and social security number, however, the information was already public. 

Trump has deigned not to comment on the hacking threat. Spokeswoman Hope Hicks has not confirmed whether or not the posted information was legitimate, but she told Fortune 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.” 

Anonymous’ motivation for targeting Trump includes the politician’s mocking of a disabled reporter, his characterization of Mexican immigrants as “rapists,” and his repeated insults against women. The specific target is TrumpChicago.com, which Anonymous has promised to hack on April Fool’s Day. The hacker collective is known for using distributed denial of service attacks to overwhelm computer services and has called for hackers across the globe to join them in targeting Trump and his website. 

In its original announcement, Anonymous claimed it would “dismantle” Trump’s presidential campaign and “expose what he doesn’t want the public to know.” 

“We have been watching you for a long time and what we’ve seen is deeply disturbing,” says the video. “You don’t stand for anything but your personal greed and power. This is a call to arms. Shut down his websites… we need you to dismantle his campaign and sabotage his brand.” 

Anonymous proved its worth last year when it helped the government erase hundreds of ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts. I think it would be a mistake for Donald Trump to ignore the group’s threats. However, I’m not sure what they could possibly dig up about Donald Trump that the world already doesn’t know. The billionaire has been in the spotlight for decades and the only information he seems reluctant to share has to do with his tax returns.