Hacker group targets RBS over oil deals

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Royal Bank of Scotland, the taxpayer-owned banking giant, has been threatened with cyber-attacks by the hacker collective Anonymous, for lending financial support to oil projects in Canada.

Anonymous, which gained notoriety last year when it launched retaliatory hacker raids in support of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, widened its campaign of civil disobedience and launched Operation Green Rights.

The campaign, it says, is in support of environmental campaigners trying to stop oil extraction from tar sands in Canada. ExxonMobil and Chevron, the oil giants, are on a hitlist of companies circulated to Anonymous supporters, along with RBS.

"Operation Green Rights will always support the rights of the people to live in an unpolluted world, and aim to help safeguard it for the future," the collective said.

Environmentalists accuse RBS of being one of the biggest backers of oil sands projects. The bank says it has little involvement and has not provided finance since 2006.