Infamous internet hacker group known as Anonymous has declared war on the Church of Scientology. The declaration came in response to Scientology’s attempt at mass internet censorship in regards to a leaked video of Tom Cruise being hosted on several websites.
They cite in their press release Scientology’s now famous tactics of threatening litigation against critics, ex-Scientologists, and anyone that is labeled as a “suppressive person”, or enemy of Scientology. They began their attack against the church through DDoS attacks, or distributed denial of service attacks, where the attackers computers sends small packets, or bits of information, to the target in massive amounts. This process clogs up the server’s tubes and eventually leads the website to become inoperably slow, eventually shutting it down. Though initially effective, many websites that were affected by the attack are now operational, if a bit sluggish. They also claim to have stolen “secret documents”, and have released them on many filesharing networks.
In addition to cyber ‘hacktivism’, the group has begun organizing “real-life” masked protests scheduled for February 10th in front of many of the centers, including the Austin, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and London facilities.
According to FOXNews.com, a Scientology spokesman has not been immediately available for comment. However, many members of Anonymous who have contacted me on the matter have stressed that this is only the beginning, and parroted many of the lines from their video.
The Anonymous video, released over YouTube, has now drawn over 600,000 page views, and is spreading in popularity thanks to websites like Digg.com. The e-bandits used Digg.com to spread their anti-Scientology message to offices and computers at an astounding rate, simply by ‘digging’ their web pages in order for them to be featured on the website. Though security experts state that the attackers are the work of amateurs, the recent amount of media attention shows that this ‘hacktivism’, if morally reprehensible, is extremely effective.
Though they have officially called off all further attacks on Scientology’s websites, they continue to release videos urging the viewers into action for their cause, many implementing references from the hit movie Fight Club.
You can find out more about Scientology from their website, www.scientology.org. You can also read up on arguments from its critics at www.xenu.net. This is a very controversial conflict and I urge you, the reader, to make up your own mind by investigating both sides of the issue.
I’d also like to point out that I, as a writer, have made no attack against the Church of Scientology and its practices, and none of my information should be misconstrued as libel or defamation as it has been gathered from several sources that I have mentioned. So don’t sue me.
