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Protesting Hacktivists Replacing Picket Lines With Web Attacks

by Terrence O'Brien on February 11, 2010 at 07:35 AM

It used to be that distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks were strictly the realm of digital gangsters and elite hacker crooks. But, as part of a worrying trend, a growing number of political and activist groups have begun to employ such tactics as a form of protest. What's more, these hacktivists, as they're called, are developing new techniques for taking out servers and defacing Web sites -- techniques that don't require the vast botnets usually hired by online gangs.

The group Anonymous, which has previously targeted the Church of Scientology, recently blocked access to several sites belonging to the Australian government, including those of the Parliament and the Prime Minister, in order to protest the country's plans to institute a nationwide Web filter that would block access to certain content -- such as gay pornography. We've also seen a pro-Iranian government group take out Twitter, and environmental groups target perfume companies.

Are denial of service attacks the new picket lines? Perhaps. With more of our daily lives existing in purely electronic form, gathering dozens of people to block a storefront just doesn't have the impact it once did. But the fact of the matter is that while peacefully gathering to protest is a protected right in many countries, hacking a Web site is illegal -- no matter how admirable your intentions. [From: BBC]

Tags: activism, anonymous, botnet, ddos, denial of service, DenialOfService, distributed denial of service, DistributedDenialOfService, Hacktivism, politics, protest, security, top

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