Hacker group Anonymous struck down government and industry Web sites this week, in what they claim was their biggest operation yet.
The collective, known for their high profile ‘hacktivist’ protests, targeted the US government and copyright organisations following the shutdown of the Megaupload file-sharing website.
The Department of Justice (DoJ), FBI and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) among others have been bombarded with internet traffic.
Web links have been distributed which, when clicked, make the user’s computer part of the attack.
Anonymous claimed responsibility through one of their multiple Twitter accounts and a press release that ‘OpMegaUpload’ saw 5,600 people taking part in the take down of these sites.
Most of the websites shut down by the collective were up and running early Friday, including the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI and some entertainment sites.
The group said that this attack was in part retaliation to MegaUpload being taken down, but they say that the larger issue is the federal government’s ability to enact take downs of Web sites without SOPA or PIPA being signed into law.
The Web sites that Anonymous took down were justice.gov, MPAA.org, UniversalMusic.com, Anti-piracy.be, RIAA.org, FBI.gov, HADOPI.fr, Copyright.gov, UniversalMusic.fr, ChrisDodd.com, Vivendi.fr, Whitehouse.gov, BMI.com and WMG.com.
“We Anonymous are launching our largest attack ever on government and music industry sites. Lulz,” the group said in a statement posted late Thursday on an associated Twitter account. “The FBI didn’t think they would get away with this did they? They should have expected us.”
The group also posted personal information on former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, one of the targeted sites.
The website glitches came soon after various Twitter accounts associated with the collective took aim at the government.
Megaupload shutdown
The DoJ announced on Thursday that it had taken action to force Megaupload and related domain names offline, and had charged the firm’s co-founders and others with violating piracy laws.
Megaupload attracted 150 million registered users and 50 million daily visitors. At one point, it was estimated to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet.
Users could upload material to the company’s sites which then would create a link that could be distributed. Users could purchase memberships to the site to obtain faster upload and download services, the primary source of revenue. The web page with the link to the copyrighted material would include advertisements, another source of revenue.
Four of the employees have been arrested in Auckland, New Zealand, at the request of the US authorities.
They appeared in court on Friday. One of their lawyers initially objected to media requests for photographs, but the accused said that they did not mind “because we have nothing to hide”.
The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.
A Justice Department official said the timing of the arrests was not related to the battle in Congress.
New Zealand police on Friday raided a mansion in Auckland and arrested Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, 37, a German national with New Zealand residency.
About 70 police, some armed, raided 10 properties and also arrested the website’s chief marketing officer, Finn Batato, 38, chief technical officer and co-founder Mathias Ortmann, 40, both also from Germany, and Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, 29, who is also a New Zealand resident.
New Zealand police seized millions of dollars worth of assets, which included luxury cars such as a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, from the group, dubbed the “Mega Conspiracy” by prosecutors. They also seized more than NZ$10 million ($8 million) from financial institutions.
“The FBI contacted New Zealand Police in early 2011 with a request to assist with their investigation into the Mega Conspiracy,” said Detective Inspector Grant Wormald from the Organized & Financial Crime Agency New Zealand.
“All the accused have been indicted in the United States. We will continue to work with the US authorities to assist with the extradition proceedings,” Wormald said in a statement.
The men appeared briefly in an Auckland court on Friday and were remanded in custody until Monday for a bail hearing.
“We have nothing to hide,” Kim Dotcom said from the dock after his lawyer opposed media cameras in the court, reported New Zealand media.
