Anonymous, the collective group of hackers known for infiltrating websites of known companies and personalities, once again made an effort to be heard, and to be taken seriously.

AnonAustria, the Austrian counterpart of Anonymous, recently released 25,000 police names, dates of birth and home addresses as a form of protest against draft legislation that would require telecoms companies to store details of all phone calls and website visits for six months, making them available for police.

They wanted the police department to know how it feels to lose their privacy by making the personal information of Austrian police public.  This poses a potential threat not only to police officers but for their families as well.  Criminals with a vendetta can easily track their targeted police officer or members of their family.

Austria’s International Police Association (IPA) denied that the information was stolen from their systems, but an Austrian Interior ministry spokesman said that it came from an “association closely related with the police.”

The same group claims to have stumbled upon a database of some 600,475 medical records from health insurance firm Tiroler Gebietskrankenkasse (TGKK).  Local media reports claim that individuals named in the database include Austrian celebrities such as pop singer Hansi Hinterseer, actor Tobias Moretti and politician Herwig van Staa.

In China, Anonymous targeted their biggest vegetable producer, Chaoda Modern Agriculture, accusing them of falsifying financial statements and swindling their investors.  The accusation was discussed in detail in a 38-page report published by Anonymous.

According to the report, “Chaoda has an extensive history of deceiving investors and shareholders. Since its IPO, there have been several resignations by auditors, executives, and directors. We provide proof that management has consistently lied about the reasons behind these resignations. We further show that management has time after time misled investors about the Company’s capital requirements. To this end, management has assured shareholders that the company was sufficiently capitalized, only to tap the capital markets – often within several weeks.”

Anonymous invites everyone to submit evidence of corruption in other companies to their website stating that, “We would love to take down the next Madoff, but we have to make sure our reach doesn’t exceed our grasp.”

And in the US, Anonymous threatened the New York Police Department as well, saying that they would bring them down if the police brutality against protesters participating in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations would not stop.  Anonymous posted a video that shows a police officer spraying pepper spray on female demonstrators.  They threatened to bring down the NYPD site if brutality doesn’t stop in 36 hours.  The video announcement was posted at 4:08PM Sunday afternoon, more than 36 hours already passed and no news of any Anonymous actions have been reported against the NYPD.