Anonymous DOS
Anonymous DOS Attacks
The most recent Anonymous DOS attacks crashed many major government and entertainment webpages including the FBI and DOJ in retaliation for the government’s shutdown of the popular sharing site, Megaupload. We reported yesterday on the Megaupload shutdown, one of the first in an anticipated series of shutdowns as the US government attempts to crack down on piracy and copyright infringement.
The Anonymous DOS attacks were in response to this as they want to let the government know that they will not allow a brute takeover of the internet and infringe on our freedoms of speech, press, and the right to share.
Anonymous DOS Attacks | What is a DOS Attack?
Unlike Anonymous’s Robin Hood attack, where the masked hackers stole credit card information and distributed funds to various charities, the latest DOS (Denial of Service) attack didn’t capture any information, but rather flooded the servers with internet traffic. Think about a server pipeline as a drain, well once that drain gets clogged with gunk, nothing can pass through. The Anonymous DOS clogged both the FBI and the DOJ’s webpages with tons and tons of traffic, rendering the sites inaccessible. So is Anonymous finished? We think not. The Washington Post reports in their latest story on the Anonymous DOS attacks:
The attacks are likely to continue, The Post’s Ed O’Keefe and Ian Shapira reported Thursday in The Federal Eye.
Barrett Brown, the Dallas-based founder of an online think tank that works with Anonymous, said that Anonymous hackers might also figure out a way to ensure that certain Congress members’ names would be linked to their support of the Stop Online Piracy Act.
“Operation Donkey Punch is definitely going to involve bringing attention to the Congress members through creative means,” Barrett said. “We have means to tie someone’s name to something forever using search engine optimization.”
Looks like Anonymous knows a thing or two about SEO as well, I can respect that. Operation Donkey Punch wants to take sharing back into the people’s hands and stop such government legislation as SOPA/PIPA.
Anonymous DOS Attacks | How They Gain Support
Anonymous is asking for your support of their attacks through several of their social media channels including Twitter:
On a Twitter account associated with the Anonymous member known as Sabu, the hacker called for Web users to “boycott Hollywood” and support torrent sites, independent movies and music and — of course — kill the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.
Using the hashtag “#StarveTheBeast,” Sabu tweeted, “We the people are in charge. We have the power. Remember that [ladies] and gentlemen. We can’t allow paper-pushers to rule us.”
You may have supported the Anonymous DOS attacks whether you realized it or not according to some sources that claim that Anonymous’s Twitter links auto-started the attack tool.
But some of the 5,600 who participated may have done so unwittingly, said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with U.K.-based antivirus vendor Sophos.
According to Cluley, members of Anonymous distributed links via Twitter and elsewhere that when clicked automatically launched a Web version of LOIC. The links pointed to a page on PasteHTML.com, a free HTML code-hosting site, which in turn executed some JavaScript to fire LOIC at Anonymous-designated targets.
Anonymous DOS Attacks | Final Note
Although some may find the Anonymous DOS attacks disturbing the attacks along with the SOPA protests has in fact curbed some support for these new internet piracy laws. What do you think about the Anonymous DOS attacks, were they justified?
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