<== Operation Blackout ==>
After one of the most popular file hoster Megaupload goes down following the US Department of Justice's indiction of 7 people who ran it, Anonymous strikes back !
Indeed, the Megaupload 7 were tracked down the day after the Blackout of Wikipedia and other major websites happended in protest against SOPA and PIPA, two internet piracy bills to be passed in congress.
Indeed, the Megaupload 7 were tracked down the day after the Blackout of Wikipedia and other major websites happended in protest against SOPA and PIPA, two internet piracy bills to be passed in congress.
The Retaliation
Only 15 minutes after the indictment, The Black Hat Hacktivist group Anonymous launches a Massive DOS attack against 10 websites. Among those who became completely out of service are:
=> The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
=> The US Department of Justice
=> Universal Music Group
=> Recording Industry Association of America
=> Motion Picture Association of America
The Distributed Denial of Service
(DDOS) Attack
(DDOS) Attack
Anonymous is a collective group of hackers who come from different geographical locations but work together against designated targets. In this event, they communicated details of their target through their IRC channel #AnonOps. You can find more information on Anonymous group's operations and even tutorials on setting up softwares and required communication channels in order to help in their cause here:
The Software = ???
The answer is LOIC => Low Orbit Ion Cannon.
LOIC is DOS applications developed to put enormous load on a target by continuously pining it. Used by thousands it becomes an effective DDOS which can put most servers down. An Anonymous rep sais that more than 5k users downloaded and used LOIC to flood the target websites.
Anonymous Message - Don't Mess With Us
The secret to their Firepower
LOIC was initially a manually operated piece of software, but it eventually evolved and transformed itself into one which can be remotely operated. The LOIC program link that spreads across Anonymous's network is one which has been modified. It indeed can be pointed at an internet relay chat server and then be controlled by the Anon Admins to use your PC and internet connection to launch attack against the targets. So basically when installing the application, you become part of a botnet..the Anonymous Botnet and you give hackes the power to control your computer. That's their firepower..and considering the enormous amount of downloads that software has received..they got a lot of it !!!