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They were trying to disarm the Erudite, and the Erudite's power comes from their knowledge and their intelligence. Destroying all of their data would mean that the Erudite would have to start over. The Factionless and the Dauntless who attacked the Erudiite didn't know about the information about the outside, as it was a closely guarded secret by both the Abnegaton and the Erudite leadership.
I know that they were trying to disarm the Erudite of the power they had which was the data they stole from Abnegation. The Factionless and the dauntless were only setting things straight after the horrible attack. Which was the outside world the information was about and it was closely related to the abnegation, who in fact had a relative from the founder Edith Prior. So yeah, this is what the attack was about.