The hacking group known as Anonymous seems to be continuing its trend of hacking U.S. government websites on Fridays. It has claimed a new series of hacks against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and consumer rights websites.
The loosely organized collection of cyber rebels said it attacked the FTC’s consumer protection business center, consumer.gov, and the National Consumer Protection Week website. Both sites were replaced with a violent German-language video (see below) satirizing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA. As of this posting, both the sites appeared to be down.

Anonymous tweets about most recent hack.
ACTA was recently signed by several countries, but restrictions on online piracy have prompted a growing protest movement.
(Related: Polish members of European Parliament support Anonymous by wearing Guy Fawkes masks)
A call by the Associated Press to the Trade Commission rang unanswered before business hours Friday. An email seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Watch the satirical video about ACTA (Warning: Graphic Content):
International Business Times has more from Anonymous’ statement on the attack:
“Even more bothersome than your complete lack of competence in maintaining your own f*****g websites and serving the citizens you are supposed to be protecting, is the US federal government’s support of ACTA. You really want to empower copyright holders to demand that users who violate IP rights (with no legal process) have their Internet connections terminated? You really want to allow a country with an oppressive Internet censorship regime to demand under the treaty that an ISP in another country remove site content? Well, we have a critical warning for you, and we suggest you read the next few paragraphs very, very closely.”
The statement continues:
“If ACTA is signed by all participating negotiating countries, you can rest assured that Antisec will bring a f*****g mega-uber-awesome war that rain torrential hellfire down on all enemies of free speech, privacy and internet freedom. We will systematically knock all evil corporations and governments off of our internet.”
Anonymous has recently threatened to take down the whole of the Internet on March 31 in an effort called Operation Global Blackout. MSNBC reports that it calls for “supporters to download a denial-of-service launching tool, called “Ramp,” which will flood the 13 root Domain Name Servers (DNS) of the Internet with more requests than they can process.”
Should we be worried? According to Robert David Graham from Errata Security, no. He writes on his blog that the hackers could cause localized disruptions but the likelihood that they could take down all root servers is slim.
In the last few weeks, Anonymous has targeted other U.S. government websites, including the Department of Justice and the CIA. The hackers also were able to listen in and record a FBI conference call with British police.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

























































































































Comments (107)
Sam55129
Mar. 1, 2012 at 9:29pmSee I was also reading on center (http://tothecenter.com/2012/02/suspected-anonymous-hackers-arrested/) and it was talking about an arrest. Kind of scary; I am really not for vigilante groups at all.
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thebirth
Feb. 20, 2012 at 12:24amI actually recorded this as soon as I landed in the Netherlands. Please watch the entire video… Cheers!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIXu5UwVSas
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thebirth
Feb. 20, 2012 at 12:22amHey guys I need every one to understand who the 1% are to the Occupiers. They are not the people that work hard and get wealth. Its the ones who work hard and use their wealth to pit peoples lives against each other for their on agenda. Lets talk about sweat shops. I have family in those sweat shops. We are standing up to that not someone who excels at what they do.
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Tyler
Feb. 19, 2012 at 8:15pmGood job Anonymous! I firmly support the actions of Anonymous because what SOPA ACTA and PIPA are doing is completely ILLEGAL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL! But the government has to have control of everything so they put a facade up to make it seem as if it is to stop Online Piracy when in fact much like that video; if you send your mother a funny picture that is copyrighted through email your in violation and will be punished. Keep up the good work Anonymous.
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ASimpleGenius
Feb. 18, 2012 at 11:24pmI think ANONYMOUS meant ‘Al Gore’s internet’…..
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Rafael
Feb. 18, 2012 at 10:29pmIf the governments stopped acting like the mafia or gangsters with laws like this we would have never heard of anonymous. governments are breeding anger everywhere, not just internet. there’s so much injustice, corruption, politicians who doesnt believe in anything but their own pockets and make laws who unfairly benefit a few and damn all the others, the state of the geopolitics this last years is so rotten and oppressive and full of **** that i cant believe the world is still running.
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Truthmonster
Feb. 18, 2012 at 7:05pmThese hackers are prolific. But if they really want to impress me, hack into the Iranian nuclear war machine that is threatning life on this planet via WW3.
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MainMan
Feb. 18, 2012 at 4:14pmThey should re-word what they said to, ” What WE deam Evil.” Someone should find them, they are not untracable and just put a bullet in their heads, oh and put that on the NET… Bet it would go viral in no time…
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carl_in_ohio
Feb. 18, 2012 at 2:33pmnail these bastards!
Use the full extend of all federal and state resources and stop these people.
Attacking government websites should be a serious federal offense.
We don’t know who is doing it. Americans, Chinese, terrorists????
this has to stop!
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Tyler
Feb. 19, 2012 at 8:29pmCarl you are so entirely wrong. Anonymous is doing this to protest these vial and evil acts like S.O.P.A. P.I.P.A. and A.C.T.A. The government needs to know that they do not have the right to restrict the freedoms of the world and cover it up as they are doing it to stop Internet Piracy. Also Anonymous is everywhere not one sole country or region of the world. They span the globe and the point of it is to insure that the internet stays free for everyone. If anyone should be punished by the full extent of the law it is Lamar Smith for writing up a bill that in fact will strip the free rights of people around the entire world. There is a college student right now facing extradition just because his website had LINKS to other websites with copyrighted material and when he gets here the U.S. Govt. is throwing him in the pin for 10 years at tax payers expense. If these evil bills are passed into law this will be happening every single day. Anyone who is in violation will sit in prison for 5 years. That is roughly 25% or more of the internet users in the united states. That is about 59 million people so this is what Anonymous is protesting. They are fighting so people like you me and 59 million other American’s won’t have to go to jail for posting their favorite picture of Bug Bunny to facebook.
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