Bowes, a consultant with Dash9 security and a developer for security scanning tool NMap, says he collected the passwords to help researchers figure out how users choose passwords and make the authentication process more secure.
Telecomix, a loose-knit team of international hacktivists, had been scanning the Syrian Internet in a massive sweep, dividing 700, 000 target connections among its members in Germany, France and the U.S., probing for hackable devices with software tools like Nmap and Shodan.