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Today, Internet activist group Anonymous once again took down several US government websites, including the US Federal Trade Commission, replacing their content with a message demanding that major countries kill the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
RTreports:
At least half a dozen federal websites belonging to the United States government were disrupted in the latest Anonymous-led assault this week. The US Federal Trade Commission was the primary target of the infiltration, and along with it Anonymous managed to take down the sites for National Consumer Protection Week as well as the Consumer Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission and others.
In place of the websites' traditional homepages, Anonymous operatives left a message to the US government and other international bodies: world leaders should rethink the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA -- an in-the-works agreement between more than a dozen major nations.
Should ACTA pass, a new series of laws could crackdown on Internet freedom by internationally imposing sanctions on ISPs and casual web surfers who are alleged to engage in copyright infringement. In a [message] posted on the homepages of the government sites, Anonymous warns that the passage of the bill would bring forth a firestorm of opposition from the hacktivists, who make claims to have already compromised a trove of data from federal employees linked to ACTA, including personal correspondence, passwords and bank account info.
"If ACTA is signed by all participating negotiating countries," reads the latest message from Anonymous, the world can expect a "war that [will] rain torrential hellfire down on all enemies of free speech, privacy and internet freedom."
"We will systematically knock all evil corporations and governments off of our internet," they add.
***
Raw Storyreports:
Calling the FTC the "Fuctarded Troglodyte Clusterfuck," hackers chide the government agency for lax enforcement of the national Do Not Call Registry, and for recently allowing search giant Google to merge data-sharing practices between its individual services. They also berated the agency for failing to properly maintain its own websites.
But more than those complaints, the hackers issued a stern warning over the government trade group's support for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Act (ACTA), which essentially extends often-criticized provisions of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act to numerous foreign nations.
"You really want to empower copyright holders to demand that users who violate IP rights (with no legal process) have their Internet connections terminated?" they asked. "You really want to allow a country with an oppressive Internet censorship regime to demand under the treaty that an ISP in another country remove site content?"
Seven separate FTC sites were not available on Friday morning, including business.ftc.gov, consumer.gov and consumer.ftc.gov. The official FTC site, ftc.gov, was still online.
The FTC's online security website OnGuardOnline.gov was taken offline last month by hackers with the "Anonymous" movement, who also claimed a hack on the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) website last Friday. After the CIA relaunched its site over the weekend, Anonymous hacked them again on Monday.
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Today, Internet activist group Anonymous once again took down several US government websites, including the US Federal Trade Commission, replacing their content with a message demanding that major countries kill the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
RTreports:
At least half a dozen federal websites belonging to the United States government were disrupted in the latest Anonymous-led assault this week. The US Federal Trade Commission was the primary target of the infiltration, and along with it Anonymous managed to take down the sites for National Consumer Protection Week as well as the Consumer Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission and others.
In place of the websites' traditional homepages, Anonymous operatives left a message to the US government and other international bodies: world leaders should rethink the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA -- an in-the-works agreement between more than a dozen major nations.
Should ACTA pass, a new series of laws could crackdown on Internet freedom by internationally imposing sanctions on ISPs and casual web surfers who are alleged to engage in copyright infringement. In a [message] posted on the homepages of the government sites, Anonymous warns that the passage of the bill would bring forth a firestorm of opposition from the hacktivists, who make claims to have already compromised a trove of data from federal employees linked to ACTA, including personal correspondence, passwords and bank account info.
"If ACTA is signed by all participating negotiating countries," reads the latest message from Anonymous, the world can expect a "war that [will] rain torrential hellfire down on all enemies of free speech, privacy and internet freedom."
"We will systematically knock all evil corporations and governments off of our internet," they add.
***
Raw Storyreports:
Calling the FTC the "Fuctarded Troglodyte Clusterfuck," hackers chide the government agency for lax enforcement of the national Do Not Call Registry, and for recently allowing search giant Google to merge data-sharing practices between its individual services. They also berated the agency for failing to properly maintain its own websites.
But more than those complaints, the hackers issued a stern warning over the government trade group's support for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Act (ACTA), which essentially extends often-criticized provisions of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act to numerous foreign nations.
"You really want to empower copyright holders to demand that users who violate IP rights (with no legal process) have their Internet connections terminated?" they asked. "You really want to allow a country with an oppressive Internet censorship regime to demand under the treaty that an ISP in another country remove site content?"
Seven separate FTC sites were not available on Friday morning, including business.ftc.gov, consumer.gov and consumer.ftc.gov. The official FTC site, ftc.gov, was still online.
The FTC's online security website OnGuardOnline.gov was taken offline last month by hackers with the "Anonymous" movement, who also claimed a hack on the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) website last Friday. After the CIA relaunched its site over the weekend, Anonymous hacked them again on Monday.
# # #
Today, Internet activist group Anonymous once again took down several US government websites, including the US Federal Trade Commission, replacing their content with a message demanding that major countries kill the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
RTreports:
At least half a dozen federal websites belonging to the United States government were disrupted in the latest Anonymous-led assault this week. The US Federal Trade Commission was the primary target of the infiltration, and along with it Anonymous managed to take down the sites for National Consumer Protection Week as well as the Consumer Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission and others.
In place of the websites' traditional homepages, Anonymous operatives left a message to the US government and other international bodies: world leaders should rethink the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA -- an in-the-works agreement between more than a dozen major nations.
Should ACTA pass, a new series of laws could crackdown on Internet freedom by internationally imposing sanctions on ISPs and casual web surfers who are alleged to engage in copyright infringement. In a [message] posted on the homepages of the government sites, Anonymous warns that the passage of the bill would bring forth a firestorm of opposition from the hacktivists, who make claims to have already compromised a trove of data from federal employees linked to ACTA, including personal correspondence, passwords and bank account info.
"If ACTA is signed by all participating negotiating countries," reads the latest message from Anonymous, the world can expect a "war that [will] rain torrential hellfire down on all enemies of free speech, privacy and internet freedom."
"We will systematically knock all evil corporations and governments off of our internet," they add.
***
Raw Storyreports:
Calling the FTC the "Fuctarded Troglodyte Clusterfuck," hackers chide the government agency for lax enforcement of the national Do Not Call Registry, and for recently allowing search giant Google to merge data-sharing practices between its individual services. They also berated the agency for failing to properly maintain its own websites.
But more than those complaints, the hackers issued a stern warning over the government trade group's support for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Act (ACTA), which essentially extends often-criticized provisions of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act to numerous foreign nations.
"You really want to empower copyright holders to demand that users who violate IP rights (with no legal process) have their Internet connections terminated?" they asked. "You really want to allow a country with an oppressive Internet censorship regime to demand under the treaty that an ISP in another country remove site content?"
Seven separate FTC sites were not available on Friday morning, including business.ftc.gov, consumer.gov and consumer.ftc.gov. The official FTC site, ftc.gov, was still online.
The FTC's online security website OnGuardOnline.gov was taken offline last month by hackers with the "Anonymous" movement, who also claimed a hack on the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) website last Friday. After the CIA relaunched its site over the weekend, Anonymous hacked them again on Monday.
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