British cops first victims as hackers unite against gov'ts
Published: Jun 21, 2011 4:04 AM | Updated: Jun 21, 2011 4:10 AM
An alliance of the world’s two most notorious hacker groups, LulzSec and Anonymous, claimed yesterday that it took down the website of Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
An alliance of the world’s two most notorious hacker groups, LulzSec and Anonymous, claimed yesterday that it took down the website of Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
The high profile cyber-attack came just a day after the groups announced on Twitter that they were launching Operation Anti-Security to target government websites across the world to protest attempts to regulate the Internet and curtail the privacy of net users.
Within 24 hours the group demonstrated its prowess when LulzSec tweeted that the SOCA Web site was offline “in the name of #AntiSec” and warned that worse was to come.
The group said it executed a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack - a well-known method of taking down websites. DDOS attacks use rings of hijacked computers to overwhelm web servers.
A SOCA official told BBC News that the site did not contain data from its investigations and that it took its site offline “to limit the impact of DDOS attack on other clients hosted by our service
provider.”
“DDOS is of course our least powerful and most abundant ammunition. Government hacking is taking place right now behind the scenes. #AntiSec,” LulzSec tweeted.
In the earlier announcement of their alliance, the groups declared “immediate and unremitting war on the freedom-snatching moderators of 2011,” referring to government attempts to regulate the Internet.
“Welcome to Operation Anti-Security,” the statement read. “We encourage any vessel, large or small, to open fire on any government or agency that crosses their path. We fully endorse the flaunting of the word ‘AntiSec’ on any government website defacement or physical graffiti art.”
“Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments,” LulzSec said.
“Together we can defend ourselves so that our privacy is not overrun by profiteering gluttons.”
While most hacker groups are famous for little more than bragging, LulzSec and Anonymous have shown in recent cyber raids on the websites of the CIA, US Senate and Sony that they are more than capable of penetrating high-profile websites.
The Anonymous group had disabled at least 51 Malaysian government websites in an attack last week.
- dpa
The high profile cyber-attack came just a day after the groups announced on Twitter that they were launching Operation Anti-Security to target government websites across the world to protest attempts to regulate the Internet and curtail the privacy of net users.
Within 24 hours the group demonstrated its prowess when LulzSec tweeted that the SOCA Web site was offline “in the name of #AntiSec” and warned that worse was to come.
The group said it executed a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack - a well-known method of taking down websites. DDOS attacks use rings of hijacked computers to overwhelm web servers.
A SOCA official told BBC News that the site did not contain data from its investigations and that it took its site offline “to limit the impact of DDOS attack on other clients hosted by our service
provider.”
“DDOS is of course our least powerful and most abundant ammunition. Government hacking is taking place right now behind the scenes. #AntiSec,” LulzSec tweeted.
In the earlier announcement of their alliance, the groups declared “immediate and unremitting war on the freedom-snatching moderators of 2011,” referring to government attempts to regulate the Internet.
“Welcome to Operation Anti-Security,” the statement read. “We encourage any vessel, large or small, to open fire on any government or agency that crosses their path. We fully endorse the flaunting of the word ‘AntiSec’ on any government website defacement or physical graffiti art.”
“Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments,” LulzSec said.
“Together we can defend ourselves so that our privacy is not overrun by profiteering gluttons.”
While most hacker groups are famous for little more than bragging, LulzSec and Anonymous have shown in recent cyber raids on the websites of the CIA, US Senate and Sony that they are more than capable of penetrating high-profile websites.
The Anonymous group had disabled at least 51 Malaysian government websites in an attack last week.
- dpa
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