http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27576/53/Fresh from their battle with the Church of Scientology, the hacking group known as Anonymous has turned its sights on the Federal Government in a bid to kill off the internet filtering initiative. Let battle commence.
Posted in a detailed plan online, Operation Digeridie lays out a wide-ranging scheme to disrupt the online activities of the Federal Government.
Quoting from the website's formal declaration of war, "On the morning of September the 9th, the Government of Australia, pursuing its course of internet censorship, have shown to us that they have no response nor intend to provide one concerning their plan. The long-known and the long-expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to belittle and undermine the freedom of the internet are now moving towards their final goals. Never before has there been a greater challenge to freedom of information, liberty and civilization. Delay invites great danger. Rapid and united effort by all of the peoples of the world who are determined to remain free will ensure a world victory of the forces of justice and of righteousness over the covert powers of censorship and of oppression. Australia is not alone in this regard: countless governments from across the world can also be exposed as fascists and dictators in this regard. Therefore a state of war between Anonymous and the Australian Government, and between Anonymous and all other governments which find themselves so inclined to impose censorship upon the internet, will be recognized.
"We need to blast their servers into the dust."
There is also a video 'manifesto' available on YouTube.
Initiatives include:
At 0900 GMT (1900 AEST), a DDoS attack will commence on a variety of government websites.
Commencing immediately, activists have been encouraged to blitz-fax every available government fax number (many have been provided on the website) with "white text on black" faxes
Activists are also encouraged to flood every known governmental email address.
Public reaction has been generally negative. On Twitter for instance: "what morons. This will do nothing to change policy, it just allows Conroy to avoid the hard questions and discredit us." Also, "It's not the kind of friends #nocleanfeed needs, IMO."
Quoted on ZDNet Intelligent Business Research Services advisor and security expert James Turner noted that "If these politicians fail to understand the sentiment in Australia around this censorship plan then it's very likely that they will be removed from their seats at the next election. This is how Australia works. We're probably the most stable democracy in the world, and we'll simply vote these politicians out."
iTWire does not condone the activities of this organisation, neither does it encourage readers to join in the protests they are threatening. In the majority of cases, such activities are probably illegal.
Regretably, this type of action will probably only play in to the governments hands and prove to uncommitted observers just how irresponsible internet users are.
