Anonymous – a infamous hacking person (or group) has laid low for some time. But recent events dealing with the SOPA/PIPA legislation being reviewed right now in both houses of Congress, and the Department of Justice shutting down a file sharing website called Megaupload; have responded with a metaphoric nuclear strike against the DoJ/gov website and other government websites.
Seems we have a Cyberwar going on now. There was a Twitter account boasting their successful strike on the US law enforcement agency. Other websites -basically media websites concerned over pirated programming and software have been shut down by Anonymous. Universal Music Group, US Copyright Office, MPAA.org, recording company EMI. French copyright authority HADOPI. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also been attacked.
As far as DoJ vs Megaupload, that website is down and four people arrested.
The House and Senate gave the Cyberattackers a victory today. Lamar Smith (R) chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and Senate Leader Harry Reid (D) will postpone or reschedule critical votes until January 24th. Quoting Senator Reid, “in light of recent events.”
Rep Lamar Smith said the following in a statement released to the media, “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”
SOPA/PIPA (Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, and PROTECT IP Act in the Senate) are the reasons for the start of this Cyberwar. Basically, these two acts are aimed at curbing online piracy which costs billions of dollars a year for the entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical and other industies.
ON the other hand, the technology companies are worried that if SOPA/PIPA becomes law, it will undermine online freedoms which would be very difficult to enforce and that it would also encourage frivolous lawsuits.
Rep Darrell Issa on the 18th introduced a companion bill in the House saying that quoting the Reuters.com article; “SOPA and PIPA lacked a fundamental understanding of how Internet technologies work. The technology sector has shown more optimism about prospects for Issa and (Senator Ron) Wyden’s alternative bill, called the OPEN Act.” end quote.
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Ref.
1. Gizmodo.com. “Anonymous Goes on Megaupload Revenge Spree: DoJ, RIAA, MPAA, and Universal Music All Offline” by Sam Biddle. January 19, 2012. ( http://gizmodo.com/5877679/anonymous-kills-department-of-justice-site-in-megaupload-revenge-strike ).
2. Reuters.com. “Congress puts brakes on anti-piracy bills” by by Thomas Ferraro and Jasmin Melvin. January 20, 2012. ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/us-usa-congress-internet-idUSTRE80J10X20120120 ).
