TMCnet Feature

In a twist of irony, an activist hacker group known as Anonymous hacked into an FBI conference call that was discussing the threat that the group posed. The call recording was posted on YouTube and boasted about on Twitter (News - Alert). “Friday will be a VERY interesting day of #Anonymous,” the group tweeted. In keeping with the group’s threat, the FBI and the Boston Police Department both had “interesting days” today.

In addition to hacking the FBI call, Anonymous took over the website of the Boston Police Department. The takeover was in response to the eviction of Occupy Boston protesters from the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway last December. The website featured an anti-police music video of “Sound of da Police” by hip-hop artist KRS-ONE. The FBI released a statement saying that they were “hunting those responsible.”

The Boston Police have had other interactions with Anonymous, according to The Boston Herald. Anonymous attacked the Boston Patrolman’s Association website and released the email addresses and passwords of members. The hackers also blamed their attack on the Patrolman’s Association as retaliation for “brutality” against the Occupy Boston movement.

Anonymous also carried out a denial of service attack against the FBI and the Justice Department on January 20. The group tweeted a link through Twitter and Internet chat rooms that relentlessly uploaded and re-uploaded targeted websites. When the link went viral, Anonymous supporters were able to participate in the attack. When supporters sent the link to people without explanation, and people clicked the link, they unwittingly participated in an attack against their own government.

Last July, after a large crackdown on alleged members of the group, Anonymous and a closely affiliated hacker group, LulzSec, issued a joint statement to the FBI. “We are not scared any more,” the groups said. “Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea.” The alleged hackers arrested last July were mostly those thought to have participated in an attack against the PayPal (News - Alert) website.

“These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies.” The FBI had no response to the hackers’ manifesto last year.