Most people could have seen this coming – with the Megaupload file-sharing site taken down yesterday, there was bound to have some form of retaliation happen; and boy did it not take long. In fact, hackers have already targeted several US government and copyright ortanization websites, where the Department of Justice (DoJ), FBI and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) were bombarded with internet traffic. Not only that, in order to make these attacks super effective (Pikachu says hello), Web links were distributed where clicking on them would make one’s computer participate in the virtual attack. Anonymous has claimed responsibility for these attacks, and I guess they did not do anything to Sony contrary to rumors that were floating around.
According to the @AnonymousWiki Twitter account, “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.” So far, 10 sites were reported to have been taken offline after the Megaupload shutdown, and they include the FBI, Universal Music, RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and Hadopi – the French government agency who play a role in “protecting creative works on the internet”.
It would be interesting to see how everything pans out in the end. Hang on for the ride!