US govt security website hacked
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Portal offering Internet security advice taken offline by hacktivist group Anonymous in protest of piracy crackdown
Hacktivist group Anonymous has claimed responsibility for taking down a website operated by US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that offers Internet security advice to consumers.
The hit on OnGuardOnline.gov appears to go beyond the usual denial of service attack. The Pastebin post claiming responsibility for attack purports to show a log of the intrusion in progress, with the hacker gaining complete access to the site's back-end MySQL database and posting links to a full copy of its copied structure.
The post also warns of further action if any of the anti-piracy bills – the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the US and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in Europe – pass, promising to destroy "dozens upon dozens of government and company websites". Anonymous affiliate group AntiSec also to have take control of "hundreds of rooted servers", as well as passwords, bank accounts and online dating details.
Hacking affiliated to the Anonymous movement continues around the world, with activists in Brazil launching denial of service attacks on the main Brazilian government website, brazil.gov.br, as well as other governement websites.
A seperate Anonymous-affiliated hacking group recently brought down multiple Polish government websites in protest of the Polish government's support for ACTA.
The @WikipediaAnon twitter account which claimed responsibility for the attack tweeted: “Dear Polish government, we will continue to disrupt and interfere with your government official websites until the 26th. Do not pass ACTA."
"We have dox files and leaked documentations on many Poland officials, if ACTA is passed, we will release these documents," the account tweeted later.
According to the BBC, government spokesperson Pawel Gras initially claimed the website was down due to "huge interest in the sites of the prime minister and parliament".
