Hacker group Anonymous steals 10,000 Iranian government e-mails

Hacking group Anonymous has hacked into Iranian government servers and stolen more than 10,000 e-mail messages from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, say US reports.

The hackers sent e-mails from the compromised servers to media organisations to prove it was in control of the servers.

The stolen e-mail archive reportedly includes approvals and rejections for visas and passports.

The hacking comes in the run-up to the second anniversary of Iran's 2009 elections on 12 June, which Anonymous plans to mark with its signature DDoS attacks, according to The Next Web.

Iranian government websites have been under a steady stream of attacks by Anonymous, which launched a DDoS campaign after the Iranian elections and subsequent protests in 2009.

Anonymous is one of the main groups using hacking and cyber attacks as a form of dissent known as "hactivism". The Anonymous group of "hacktivists" has targeted several global companies and Middle East governments in recent months.

The Iranian government has been trying to cover up the incident for the past few days, according to an Anonymous source cited by other reports.

The reports come as suspected Anonymous spin-off, Lulz Security, claims to have accessed the servers hosting Sony Pictures Entertainment and obtained the e-mail addresses, birth dates and passwords of more than 1m users.