14 DAY TRIAL // This week was all about hacktivism. Million Mask March protests took place all over the world on November 5. While these protests were more about real-world rallies, hackers also made their presence felt on Guy Fawkes Day.
The countries that have made the most headlines are the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia. In the Philippines, around 40 government websites have been hacked or disrupted by members of Anonymous.
Authorities threatened the hacktivists, but to no avail.
In Singapore, Anonymous claims to have disrupted several government websites. However, the government denies it, saying that the downtimes are part of planned maintenance operations meant to strengthen official sites.
The country’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) reported seeing unusually high Internet traffic on November 5, most likely as a result of DDOS attempts or vulnerability scans. However, they haven't admitted to any systems being breached or disrupted.
The most notable attacks were aimed at the websites of the prime minister and the president of Singapore. Hackers exploited XSS vulnerabilities to “deface” their search pages. However, the websites have not actually been breached.
Indonesia’s hacktivists are unhappy with the fact that Australia has been spying on their country. That’s why they've hacked and defaced hundreds of Australian websites.
However, since the targeted sites don’t have anything to do with the government, Anonymous Australia has urged the hackers to stop attacking innocent websites and focus on the ones of the government.
For a short while, the Indonesians took Anonymous Australia’s advice but, now, some of them are back to targeting commercial websites.
Hackers of Anonymous Ukraine have launched a campaign called OpIndependence. The hacktivists want Ukraine to be independent of NATO, the EU and other countries.
That’s why they’ve launched cyberattacks against major websites from Estonia, Poland and Russia. Estonia says it’s not worth the trouble to try and track down the attackers, considering that the attack on the Ministry of Defense’s website had only limited impact.
However, this operation is not as simple as it seems. There’s a piece of the puzzle that we can’t figure out, at least not yet.
There are a few other hacktivism-related stories worth mentioning. The Syrian Electronic Army has finally hacked Vice. Why do we say finally? Because the hackers threatened the publication months ago, after it published an article on the identities of alleged members of the SEA.
Over the past period, Anonymous has often protested against animal cruelty. This week, hacktivists have launched a campaign that targets bullfighting.
Finally, the Anonymous-affiliated group that has targeted several governments over the past period – including the ones of Poland, Ukraine and Greece – has leaked data allegedly stolen from the computer and mobile devices of an Italian politician. The stolen documents are related to the mafia, corruption and drugs.
Here are some other interesting stories, in case you’ve missed them.
Barrett Brown’s mother sentenced to 6 months probation
6 cybercriminals, including malware developer, convicted in the UK
Experts find DOS tool designed to attack HealthCare.gov
5 hackers added to FBI’s Cyber Most Wanted list
Toronto mayor reportedly hires hacker to destroy video of him smoking crack cocaine
Close to 2 million Adobe customers used “123456” as a password
$1.1 million / €800.000 worth of Bitcoins stolen from wallet service Inputs.io