The attack was part of the operation called OpBahrain

Apr 21, 2012 08:12 GMT  ·  By

Hours after they threatened Formula 1 representatives for the race that’s about to take place in Bahrain, Anonymous hackers have launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack on the formula1.com site, as part of the operation dubbed OpBahrain.

The main targets of the operation are not the Formula 1 organizers, but since the F1 Grand Prix is something that the current rulers of the country want, opposing the event can be seen as a form of protest against the government.

By accepting the contract with Bahrain, Formula 1 is considered to be on the side of the royal family, which is strongly protested by many of the country’s citizens.

“Not only is the Human Rights situation in Bahrain tragic, it becomes more drastic with each passing day. For these reasons the F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain should be strongly opposed. The Al Khalifa regime stands to profit heavily off the race and has promised to use live ammunition against protestors in preparation,” the attackers wrote.

“They have already begun issuing collective punishment to entire villages for protests and have promised further retribution ‘to keep order’ for the F1 events in Bahrain. The Formula 1 racing authority was well-aware of the Human Rights situation in Bahrain and still chose to contribute to the regime's oppression of civilians and will be punished.”

This statement was written by the hackers on the main page of f1-racers.net, after they managed to breach and deface it. F1-racers.net doesn’t seem to be officially affiliated with Formula 1, which most likely means that Anonymous found it to be an easy target and a great website for issuing an F1-related statement.

As Graham Cluley pointed out, the attack on the site will probably not influence the racing event in any way, but the hacktivists are probably content with the fact that they managed to spread their message.