Anonymous hacks U.S. govt websites

February 18, 2012 09:39 am | Updated November 17, 2021 12:19 am IST - LONDON

Cyber rebels from Anonymous announced on Friday the group has carried out a new series of attacks against U.S. government websites to protest a global copyright treaty.

Anonymous said in a statement posted to the Internet that it had attacked websites for the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection business centre and the National Consumer Protection Week.

The Trade Commission confirmed that the sites had been compromised, saying in an email that they had been taken down and wouldn’t be brought back “until we’re satisfied that any vulnerability has been addressed.”

Earlier Friday, the sites had been replaced with a violent German-language video satirizing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA.

The treaty aims to halt intellectual property theft such as illegal film downloads but many activists fear its provisions could be used to prosecute trivial acts such as remixing music or making online video montages.

The hackers’ video underlined the latter point, showing a home computer user being shot to death by alleged ACTA enforcers for emailing a photograph to his mother.

In its statement, Anonymous also boasted of stealing a significant amount of personal data from Trade Commission employees including everything from banking statements to dating website information. That claim could not immediately be confirmed.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.