Online hacktivist group Anonymous has begun hacking and taking down various US and Industry websites after popular file hosting site Megauploaded was shut down on Thursday by U.S. officials.
In the groups Twitter messages they touted the ability to take down websites from the U.S. Department of Justice, Universal Music, and the Motion Picture Association of America (Tweet pictured above).
The Anonymous Twitter account then goes on to note:
“The Largest Attack Ever by Anonymous – 5,635 People Confirmed Using #LOIC Bring Down Sites!”
LOIC refers to Low Orbit Ion Cannon, a tool Anonymous and its supports user to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks on websites.
Later into the campaign Anonymous tweeted about their “largest attack ever.”
In IRC chats surrounding the groups activities include various website such as the:
Recording Industry of America (RIAA), the White House, the FBI, BMI.com, Copyright.com, Viacom, Anti-piracy.be/nl, Vivendi.fr, Hadopi.fr, and ChrisDodd.com (who now heads the RIAA).
In the meantime the arrival of SOPA and PIPA protesters have seemed to push hacktivists further then they have done in the past on such a scale, noting on the Anonymous account:
“Seems like some friendly ships are launching torpedos justice.gov as we speak. The site seems down to us! (via @AnonOpsSweden).”
While the group AnonOps adds:
“Tango down! universalmusic.com & justice.gov// #Megaupload.”
“Anonymous/Megaupload backlash update: http://RIAA.ORG is now Tango Down | #OpPayback #OpMegaupload #SOPA #PIPA,” another tweet from that account said.
There is still no official word from MegaUpload and it’s unknown as this time what will happen to user fees that were paid to use the service with a premium membership.
Are you surprised by the outrage felt by Anonymous and its hacktivist followers or do you believe MegaUpload should have been allowed to remain in business?