Hacker group Anonymous claims attack on Mercer firm
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The international computer hacker network that calls itself Anonymous claimed Tuesday to have shut down the website of a Mercer County company that has been supplying the tear gas used by Egyptian forces to quell protests in that country.
The hackers, who say they struck in honor of the anniversary of the uprising in Bahrain on Feb. 14, 2011, the first of the "Arab spring" revolutions across the Middle East, said they wiped out the company's Web servers and released names, email passwords and identifying information of its employees.
The Combined Systems site remained down Tuesday.
Don Smith, the chief executive officer, didn't return a call. The privately held company has refused to comment in the past, including in December, when two dozen protesters showed up at its Jamestown offices to decry the use of tear gas by the Egyptian military and police to suppress democratic activists.
Video news reports show that the gas canisters fired at demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square are stamped "Made in the U.S.A." by Combined Systems.
Amnesty International has called on the U.S. to stop the company's shipments to Egypt.
The company, which employs about 100 people, was founded in 1981 and supplies anti-personnel devices and nonlethal munitions to the U.S. military and the armed forces of other nations, as well as law enforcement agencies around the world. Among its domestic customers is the U.S. Marine Corps.
The Anonymous group has targeted the computers of numerous agencies and companies worldwide, often working in tandem with the Occupy movement in showing support for democratic campaigns sweeping Arab nations.
First Published February 15, 2012 12:00 am
