Anonymous has been quiet for the last few weeks, but today, in response to the US Governments" sudden and unexpected move to take down MegaUpload, the group launched a denial of service attack on the Department of Justice website, rendering it unusable for the last hour.
To many, it appeared that the website had crumpled under the amount of users accessing the site after the news of the MegaUpload arrests and takedown, but it appears there may be more to the story.
According to The Next Web, while the "official" Anonymous Twitter account hasn"t taken the blame for the attack, the Swedish branch has. Chatter is all over the #OpPayBack hashtag about the "success" of the attack and that the group took down the Department of Justice in just 15 minutes of the news breaking.
Does this mean Anonymous is back? If so, it could be in a big way. This is the first time the group has made a direct attack (and admitted it) on a US Government site, meaning the FBI is likely to respond swiftly.
Update: The Universal Music group, as well as the RIAA websites are currently offline too (or, very intermittently available), the group is yet to publicly comment but this appears to also be the work of Anonymous. See below update.
Update 2: The MPAA website is also offline. Tweets are claiming Whitehouse.gov is the next target.
Update 3: Anonymous just confirmed their involvement in the attack on RIAA/MPAA/Universal.
Update 4: We"ve heard that the FBI website may have been hacked. More soon...
Update 5: Copyright.gov is offline now, too.
Update 6: FBI.gov is the next target, according to this tweet.
Update 7: This is getting personal. MPAA chief Chris Dodd"s personal website is now under attack.
Update 8: Anonymous just dumped the database of the Utah Chiefs of Police association website with personal details and logins. We won"t link this for obvious reasons. USDOJ.gov is down, too.
Update 9: Twitter has manually removed the #opmegaupload and #oppayback hashtags from trends and appears to be actively ripping out anything related.
Update 10: BMI.com is down.
Update 11: We"re trying to confirm if Twitter actually does actively pull trends, it"s common for the website to demote trends when they become "noise" (an example is Justin Bieber). Despite this, it"s only been two hours so this should not have happened.
Update 12: DDOS and #DepartmentOfJustice just disappeared from US trends
Update 13: Anonymous is really hunkering down on Whitehouse.gov. It"s not down yet, but they"re not stopping tweeting about it.
Update 14: CNN reports: "Source inside Anonymous claims More than 27,000 computers involved in DOJ attack."
Update 15: #Megaupload is now at the top of Twitter trends, around 1800 tweets a second.
Update 16: We"re still here. News has slowed right now, we"ll update if anything happens.
Update 17: The Department of Justice finally caught on, tweeting that they"re experiencing "high load." No kidding.
Update 18: They"ve managed to cripple FBI.gov. Impressive!
Update 19: Proof of Mega group paying for content is coming out in the form of email leaks:
On or about February 5, 2007, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to ORTMANN entitled “reward payments”. Attached to the e-mail was a text file listing the following proposed reward amounts, the Megaupload.com username, and the content they uploaded:
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] 10+ Full popular DVD rips (split files), a few small porn movies, some software with key generators (warez)
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] 5845 files in his account, mainly Vietnamese content
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] Popular DVD rips
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] Some older DVD rips + unknown (Italian serries?) rar files
1500 USD [USERNAME DELETED] known paid user (vietnamese content)
Update 20: That didn"t last long, FBI.gov is back online.
Update 21: We can"t believe this, but it looks like Megaupload is trying to get back online with a new URL. Not quite - the URL that is floating around "megavideo.bz" is a scam site and will infect your computer. We advise against visiting this site.
Update 22: Things seem to have quieted down for now. Please tip us if you hear anything else!
Update 23: Venturebeat got a list of seized items from the founder of Megaupload:
- 2010 Maserati GranCabrio, VIN ZAMKM45B000051328, License Plate No. “M-FB 212” or “DH-GC 470”, registered to FINN BATATO;
- 2009 Mercedes-Benz E500 Coupe, VIN WDD20737225019582, License Plate No. “FEG690”;
- 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM, VIN WDB2093422F165517, License Plate No. “GOOD”;
- 2004 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG 5.5L Kompressor, VIN WDB2093422F166073, License Plate No. “EVIL”;
- 2010 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG L, VIN WDD2211792A324354, License Plate No. “CEO”;
- 2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drop Head Coupe, VIN SCA2D68096UH07049; License Plate No. “GOD”;
- 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, VIN WDD2120772A103834, License Plate No. “STONED”;
- 2010 Mini Cooper S Coupe, VIN WMWZG32000TZ03651, License Plate No. “V”;
- 2010 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, VIN WDC1641772A608055, License Plate No. “GUILTY”;
- 2007 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG, VIN WDD2163792A025130, License Plate No. “KIMCOM”;
- 2009 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, VIN WDC1641772A542449, License Plate No. “MAFIA”;
- 2010 Toyota Vellfire, VIN 7AT0H65MX11041670, License Plate Nos. “WOW” or “7”;
- 2011 Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG, VIN WDB4632702X193395, License Plate Nos. “POLICE” or “GDS672”;
- 2011 Toyota Hilux, VIN MR0FZ29G001599926, License Plate No. “FSN455”;
- Harley Davidson Motorcycle, VIN 1HD1HPH3XBC803936, License Plate No. “36YED”;
- 2010 Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG, VIN WDD2163742A026653, License Plate No. “HACKER”;
- 2005 Mercedes-Benz A170, VIN WDD1690322J184595, License Plate No. “FUR252”;
- 2005 Mercedes-Benz ML500, VIN WDC1641752A026107, License Plate No. DFF816;
- Fiberglass sculpture, imported from the United Kingdom with Entry No. 83023712;
- 1957 Cadillac El Dorado, VIN 5770137596;
- 2010 Sea-Doo GTX Jet Ski, VIN YDV03103E010;
- 1959 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible, VIN 59F115669;
- Von Dutch Kustom Motor Bike, VIN 1H9S14955BB451257;
- 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM, VIN WDB2094421T067269;
- 2010 Mini Cooper S Coupe, VIN WMWZG32000TZ03648 License Plate No. “T”;
- 1989 Lamborghini LM002, VIN ZA9LU45AXKLA12158, License Plate No. “FRP358”
- 2011 Mercedes-Benz ML63, VIN 4JGBB7HB0BA666219;
- Samsung 820DXN 82” LCD TV;
- Samsung 820DXN 82” LCD TV;
- Samsung 820DXN 82” LCD TV;
- Devon Works LLC, Tread #1 time piece;
- Artwork, In High Spirits, Olaf Mueller photos from The Cat Street Gallery;
- Sharp 108” LCD Display TV;
- Sharp 108” LCD Display TV;
- Sony PMW-F3K Camera S/N 0200231;
- Sony PMW-F3K Camera S/N 0200561;
- Artwork, Predator Statue;
- Artwork, Christian Colin;
- Artwork, Anonymous Hooded Sculpture;
- 2009 Mercedes-Benz ML350 CDI 4MATIC Off-Roader;
- Sharp LC-65XS1M 65” LCD TV;
- Sharp LC-65XS1M 65” LCD TV;
- TVLogic 56” LUM56W TV;
- Sixty (60) Dell R710 computer servers.