Hackers have 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 been distributed which, when clicked, make the user's computer part of the attack.
A statement attributed to Anonymous claimed responsibility.
Blackout protest
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.
Four of the employees have been arrested in Auckland, New Zealand, at the request of the US authorities.
Police also seized cash, valuable cars and a short-barrelled shotgun
from the residence of the website's German founder, Kim Dotcom, formerly
known as Kim Schmitz.
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".
Their Hong Kong-based site had around 150 million users and
50 million daily hits. It had received celebrity endorsements from the
model Kim Kardashian and singers Alicia Keys and Kanye West among
others, making it one of the net's most high-profile file sharing sites.
The business had said it had been diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.
News of the arrests came the day after thousands of websites
had taken part in a "blackout" to protest against proposed anti-piracy
laws; however, the DoJ suggested the two matters were not related.
A statement from the department noted that a grand jury indictment against the Megaupload employees was issued on 5 January.
'Unwanted traffic'
Hours later a statement linked to the @AnonymousWiki twitter
account announced: "We Anonymous are launching our largest attack ever
on government and music industry sites. Lulz. The FBI didn't think they
would get away with this did they? They should have expected us."
It said that 10 sites had been taken offline in response to
the Megaupload shutdown including the FBI, Universal Music, RIAA
(Recording Industry Association of America) and Hadopi - the French
government agency responsible for "protecting creative works on the
internet".
On Friday, Universal's webpage said: "This site is under maintenance. Please expect it to be back shortly."
Hadopi was also offline, reporting "technical problems". However, the other sites on the Anonymous list all loaded.
Security firm Sophos's blog said that the attacks were
carried out |