So-called hactivists – politically motivated hackers – have been increasingly in the news of late. (And we have been looking at them here at GRT's blog.)

Now some further light is shone on the murky world of hactivism by tech security blog Infosec Island. It scored an exclusive interview with Yama Tough, the hacker who got hold of filched source code for Symantec security products. (Symantic later confirmed that the code, for older product versions, was the real deal.)

Yama Tough made no claim to have hacked into Symantec's own data centers. Instead, the hactivist claims to have obtained the code from servers belonging to various ministries of the Indian government.

Other documents have appeared online that seem to be from India's Directorate General of Military Intelligence. The Indian government has not confirmed them as genuine, but is also not reported to have denounced them as forgeries. Symantec has denied providing source code to Indian spooks.