“Remember the day we fight back,” the hackers said

Jan 11, 2014 07:58 GMT  ·  By

Shortly after Reddit cofounder and activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide on January 11, 2013, Anonymous hackers defaced the website of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Now, one year after his death, hacktivists have targeted MIT’s website once again.

Hackers have defaced the subdomain used by MIT for the Cogeneration Project (cogen.mit.edu).

On the website, the following message has been posted, “Remember The Day We Fight Back, Remember. We Never Forget, We Never Surrender, Expect Us.”

Security expert Janne Ahlberg says it's possible that the hackers leveraged an SQL Injection vulnerability to breach the website.

The attack is part of Operation Last Resort, the campaign initiated shortly after Swartz’s death.

The message from the hackers contains a link to “The Day We Fight Back,” a website that militates against mass surveillance. At the time of writing, the MIT subdomain is still defaced.

Several high-profile websites were hacked as part of OpLastResort in the past, including the Federal Reserve, the Sentencing Commission, the National Association of Federal Agents, and the Department of State.

In case you’re not very familiar with Aaron Swartz’s story and you’re wondering why Anonymous has targeted MIT, it’s because the organization’s actions led to the activist being prosecuted, which ultimately led to him committing suicide.

Swartz was accused of illegally downloading a large number of documents from the digital repository JSTOR through MIT’s networks. MIT security caught him on camera while downloading data with the aid of a laptop connected to a switch in a wiring closet.

The video has recently been provided by authorities to Kevin Poulsen, the man who filed a lawsuit against the US government in an effort to obtain all the documents the Secret Service had on Swartz.

After Swartz’s death, US officials have been trying to make modifications to the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).