The Anonymous Internet collective is claiming responsibility for DDoS attacks that reportedly knocked offline the websites of prominent defense contractor, Boeing, and two trade associations, TechAmerica and USTelecom.
The website of TechAmerica remained down Wednesday afternoon. In a phone interview, TechAmerica’s senior vice president of Communications, Stephanie Craig, confirmed that the attack took place and that the company’s website remained offline, but declined further comment. USTelecom confirmed that they had been targeted by Anonymous with denial of service attack on Monday morning. The trade association believes Anonymous targeted them over their support of CISPA as well.
“We respect the right of those calling themselves ‘Anonymous’ to express their views and engage in lawful political advocacy,” said USTelecom president and CEO Walter McCormick in a prepared statement. “But by launching a cyber attack in an effort to coerce, intimidate and stifle speech, members of Anonymous are acting contrary to the very freedoms and Internet norms that they espouse.” Anonymous’s actions only “underscore the importance of speedy action on the [bill]” to keep the Internet safe and open for all, he said in the statement.
The attack on Boeing occurred around 3 PM EST on April 10, and was reportedly in retaliation for the company’s support of a controversial piece of cybersecurity legislation, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), according to an MSNBC report and an announcement on the YourAnonNews twitter feed.
A Boeing company spokesperson, Todd Kelly, would not confirm the incident, saying the company does not discuss matters of IT security.
Online civil rights group The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been leading the charge against CISPA, the successor bill to the much-maligned Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was defeated after a wave of protest. The EFF argues that while the bills may be well-intentioned, they invariably open the door for future corporate and government abuses. You can find a list of companies that support the bill here.
“Anonymous’s actions only “underscore the importance of speedy action on the [bill]” to keep the Internet safe and open for all, he said in the statement.”
All, except Anonymous, of course. [lies]
DOH!
How is it supposed to keep the internet “open for all” when every time they introduce a new bill it consistantly shows a tighter lockdown on individual freedoms?
It is ridiculous for companies with all the money and power to get what they want to say the plebs (aka the 99%) should use lawful means to voice their views. We do and these bills go ahead anyway. Congress etc are in the service of their paymasters and their really is no democratic process in place.
“But by launching a cyber attack in an effort to coerce, intimidate and stifle speech, members of Anonymous are acting contrary to the very freedoms and Internet norms that they espouse
what the hell does this statement mean, us telecom. just because u say something doesnt mean its true. you are trying to limit our freedoms. do u expect us to sit idly by and watch as our freedoms are curtailed.
you have just joined the war, us telecom, but u have joined the wrong side. as with all wars, bad things happen so stop your whining.
we are anonymous
we are legion
expect us
The people who support Anonymous these days seem to far outnumber those that hate them, at least as far as the internet’s citizens are concerned.
They are thoroughly convinced that they are going to win. The media, goverment, and whoever else supports bills like SOPA, ACTA and CISPA honestly believe that we are going to listen, and stop using torrents and p2p file sharing if they arrest a few of us. They really think that we are that stupid.
We are NOT going to stop. If they want to moniter our activities, they won’t find anything but a crowd of people screaming for privacy. If they want to block websites that we use, we’ll just find ways around it. They can not stop the free flow of information. They gave us the technology, they should have expected that we’re going to use it.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified)
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified)
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified)
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified)
Lol. They are really good represented here.
Anonymous should ACTUALLY read the bill before making assumptions. I can almost guarentee that none of the commentors have read the bill. They just go by what “they heard” from other annoying wanna-be so-called anonymous hackers.
Anonymous needs to get a life… doing DDoS attacks aren’t going bring a company down and stop working… and you don’t have to be a hacker to do a DDoS attack…most 12 years old can do it. DDos attacks from Anonymous just means most of them (99%) are amateurs. They think they are making a difference… but your not. Anonymous get’s their names put in all the news articles but nobody except you and the NSA know who you really are so what did you really accomplish? Get a life Anonaretards…you will never get what you want.
i see all the uneducated replies here that the Gov s helping keep us safe.. hahaha bloody douches ..
Serves those fuckers right… Who would want assholes spying on our privacy!? This isn’t fucking big brother: America is supposed to be a country of freedom not a country of nazi’s What right gives Congress and the Government to abuse our free speech?
The internet is a place that holds freedom: for freedom, why the fuck the government thinks the protests were for? They should know they’re got over a million hackers with ddos rifles and shotguns and if that weren’t bad enough… They have over a million people who intend to start a rebellion against those who seek control over the internet…
They understimate what “Anonymous” can do… Rather than spending to get control over the internet… Spend the money for improving countries rather than using money for something evil as Internet Law Domination! the government better get their fucktards head’s straight…
hi
hi
So…these thugs keep saying that they’re all for neutrality and free-thinking and privacy and tolerance, etc, etc, etc. Why is it that when someone shows support for something that ‘anonymous’ dowsn’t like, they hypocritically show their own INtolerance? Suppression of an opposing viewpoint is their way of showing how freedom should be??? WTF?
Harm De Weirdt?
The whole point of a DDoS is as a protest, not to “shut a website down”. The internet isnt owned by anyone, so a government shouldnt be allowed to go around putting rules upon it, and taking it for granted we think its a great idea. Its not. Who has the money to go out and buy music and films? I would if I could, but thanks to taxes, I cant so I wont
Thats the point right — they noticed that they don’t have complete control and regulation of the internet…so now they are fighting to get that. It’s terrible that our elected officials are going against the wishes of their communities, but corp sponsored government is what the United States has turned into, and it wasn’t a recent act.
Essentially, the US is on life support – credit defunct, in debt, and without leadership. This is a receipe for disaster, but hey, I’ll just watch some more sitcoms and forget about it…
“The people who support Anonymous these days seem to far outnumber those that hate them, at least as far as the internet’s citizens are concerned.”
I would agree – with the US government pushing it’s weight further into our space, we have a choice. For me, I see that the US government is running the people into a wall, and SOPA/CISPA/etc are examples of a empire that is struggling to hold on relavence.
Lets face it – in 10-15 years, the US will no longer be a major player in the world economy. We are not going to implode as russia did in the early 90′s, but our voice will be much lower, as we will not be an economic power — then we can all moan and groan about the “great firewall” that we will have censoring everything we want to learn about. Writing is on the wall.
What about those that are in a love/hate limbo with Anonymous? They love them for them supporting internet freedom but at the same time hate them for their high actions?
I’m one of those people in “tango”, but given how these out-of-touch republicans are constantly trying to get these bills passed, unless the next election makes Congress turn a new leaf, I just sit back and say “You had it coming”.
Besides, even if this bill passes, Anonymous isn’t just some sit around group of nerdy computer geeks. These people are immensely smart and capable of finding the smallest of loopholes. They’ll find ways around it